God rest you merry gentlemen (arr Stainer) - Cantate Domino

God rest you merry, gentlemen,
let nothing you dismay,
for Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
was born upon this day
to save us all from Satan’s power
when we were gone astray.

In Bethlehem in Jewry
this blessed Babe was born,
and laid within a manger
upon this blessed morn;
the which his mother Mary
nothing did take in scorn.

From God our heavenly Father
a blessed angel came,
and unto certain shepherds
brought tidings of the same,
how that in Bethlehem was born
the Son of God by name.

“Fear not,” then said the angel,
“Let nothing you affright;
this day is born a Saviour
of virtue, power and might,
to free all those who trust in him
from Satan’s power and might.”

The shepherds at these tidings
rejoiced much in mind,
and left their flocks a-feeding
in tempest, storm and wind,
and went to Bethlehem straightway
the blessed Babe to find.

And when to Bethlehem they came,
to where the infant lay,
they found him in a manger
where oxen fed on hay;
his mother Mary, kneeling,
unto the Lord did pray.

Now to the Lord sing praises,
all you within this place,
and with true love and brotherhood
each other now embrace.
the holy tide of Christmas
all others doth deface.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as Tidings of Comfort and Joy, and by variant incipits as Come All You Worthy Gentlemen; God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen; God Rest Ye, Merry Christians; or God Rest You Merry People All.

It is one of the oldest extant carols, dated to the 16th century or earlier. The earliest known printed edition of the carol is in a broadsheet dated to c. 1760. The traditional English melody is in the minor mode; the earliest printed edition of the melody appears to be in a parody, in the 1829 Facetiae of William Hone. It had been traditional and associated with the carol since at least the mid-18th century, when it was recorded by James Nares under the title “The old Christmas Carol”.

The carol is referred to in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, 1843: “... at the first sound of ‘God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!’, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.”