Once in Royal David's City ========================== w: Cecil Francis Alexander, 1848 m: Henry John Gauntlett, 1849 Tune: Irby Meter: 8.7.8.7.7.7. {Also an alternate British tune.} [Verse 1] Once in royal David's city stood a lowly cattle shed, where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed; Mary, loving mother mild, Jesus Christ, her little child. [Verse 2] He came down to earth from heaven who is God and Lord of all, and his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall. With the poor, the scorned, the lowly lived on earth our Savior holy. [Verse 3] Jesus is our childhood's pattern; day by day, like us he grew; he was little, weak, and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew; and he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness. [Verse 4] And our eyes at last shall see him, through his own redeeming love; for that child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heav'n above; and he leads his children on to the place where he is gone.