Come, Children of This Long, Discarded Night

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Rebecca Reynolds and I wrote this Advent song during one of our Hutchmoot 2013 sessions. It is part of a larger collection of new but old-sounding hymns we’ve collaborated on with Jeff Taylor. We’re scheduled to go back into the studio in mid-December, and we will finish the record in January and February with somewhere around 15 or 16 tracks. Credits: Jeff Taylor, piano, accordion; Ron Block, guitar, lead and harmony vocal; Luke Bulla, violins. Julie Lee, harmony vocals. Available here.

Come Children of this Long Discarded Night

(Music by Ron Block, Moonlight Canyon Publishing, BMI/Words by Rebecca Reynolds, Wynken Owl, BMI)

Come, children of this long, discarded night
Encumbered by the bonds of labor’s strain
What burns against the pitch of heaven’s veil?
To woo each mortal soul from Eden’s pain?

Come, trouble of the slow, forsaken years
Bent low from friendless journey o’er the earth
While hearts of men have worn to sod and stone,
What brightness hearkens like the fires of home?

CHORUS:
Oh, hear the shining thrill of grace resound!
The ancient throng in wonder now declares
That Love is born!
That Love is born!
All glory be to God on high,
All peace, good will toward men in Him is found.

Come, children of each dark and distant land
From stories of a kind and noble king
These winds that stir thy thrumming heart’s desire
Proclaim the hope that this glad even’ brings.

Come, impulse of thy tired, waning joy
Come thirst, and want, and pining, bitter grief
Lift up your eyes, behold what radiance stirs
To remedy each sorrow sprung from earth.

CHORUS:
Oh, hear the shining thrill of grace resound!
The ancient throng in wonder now declares
That Love is born!
That Love is born!
All glory be to God on high,
All peace, good will toward men in Him is found.

All peace, good will toward men in Him is found.

Winner of 147 Grammys (or so), Ron Block is the banjo-ninja portion of Alison Kraus and Union Station. When he's not laying down a bluegrass-style martial-arts whoopin' on audiences around the world, he's taking care of his donkey named "Trash" and keeping himself busy by being one of the most well-read and thoughtful people we know.


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