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Keep Silence

"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" is probably my favourite hym in church. It has a haunting melody and it sets quite a tone. The words are here, and the melody can be heard here (it even works in Firefox, because the page uses Media Player instead of QuickTime, for which, it seems, there is no Firefox plugin as yet). I did not know before today that the words and the music originated independently. The words go back to the 4th century, while the tune is from 17th century France.
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence 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 At his feet the six-winged Seraph Cherubim, with sleepless eye Veil their faces to the presence As with ceaseless voice they cry Alleluia, Alleluia Alleluia, Lord most high!

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