Hymns of the Eastern Church: S. Cosmas: Canon For Christmas Day, Ode VI.
Hymns of the Eastern Church, by J.M. Neale, [1884]
Canon for Christmas Day
by S. Cosmas
σπλάγχνων Ἰωνᾶν.
As Jonah, issuing from his three days’ tomb,
At length was cast, uninjured, on the earth;
So, from the Virgin's unpolluted womb
The Incarnate Word, That dwelt there, had His Birth:
For He, Who knew no taint of mortal stain,
Willed that His Mother spotless should remain.
Christ comes, Incarnate God, amongst us now,
Begotten of the Father ere the day:
And He, to Whom the sinless legions bow,
Lies cradled, ’midst unconscious beasts on hay:
And, by His homely swaddling-bands girt in,
Looses the many fetters of our sin.
Now the New Child of Adam's race draws nigh,
To us, the faithful, given: This, this is He
That shall the Father of Eternity,
The Angel of the Mighty Counsel, be:
This the eternal God, by Whose strong hands
The fabric of the world supported stands.