Verse 1
All glory to God in the sky,
And peace upon earth be restor’d!
O Jesus, exalted on high,
Appear our omnipotent Lord:
Who meanly in Bethlehem born,
Didst stoop to redeem a lost race,
Once more to thy creature[1] return,
And reign in thy kingdom of grace.
Verse 2
When thou in our flesh didst appear,
All nature acknowledg’d thy birth;
Arose the acceptable year,
And heaven was open’d on earth:
Receiving its Lord from above,
The world was united to bless
The giver of concord and love,
The Prince and the author of peace.
Verse 3
O wouldst thou again be made known,
Again in thy Spirit descend,
And set up in each of thine own,
A kingdom that never shall end!
Thou only art able to bless,
And make the glad nations[2] obey,
And bid the dire enmity cease,
And bow the whole world to thy sway.
Verse 4
Come then to thy servants again,
Who long thy appearing to know,
Thy quiet and peaceable reign
In mercy establish below:
All sorrow before thee shall fly,
And anger and hatred be o’er,
And envy and malice shall die,
And discord afflict us no more.
Verse 5
No horrid alarm[3] of war
Shall break our eternal repose;
No sound of the trumpet is there,
Where Jesus’s Spirit o’erflows:
Appeas’d by the charms of thy grace
We all shall in amity join,
And kindly each other embrace,
And love with a passion like thine.
[1] Wesley changed “creature” to “creatures” in 1764.
[2] Wesley changed “nations” to “nation” in 1784.
[3] Wesley changed “alarm” to “alarum” in 1762.