Song: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
“Let all mortal flesh keep silence” is one of the earliest Christian hymns still in common usage. Its roots date to the fourth century and is based on the Greek text “Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn” in the Liturgy of St. James.
According to hymnologist Albert Bailey, the ancient Liturgy of St. James originated with the Church at Jerusalem and is sometimes called the Liturgy at Jerusalem. Originally it was thought to have been the work of James the Lesser, the brother of Jesus, but now seems to have been created under Cyril of Jerusalem c. 347 and was later amplified.
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heav’nly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.