Here is a another gem from the 1878 book by Fr. Osgood Fuller
The Life of Christ in Song: Advent and Christmas TimeThe words can roughly be placed to the Byzantine Tone 3 melody
Awed by the BeautyThe Annunciation
Fr. Osgood Fuller 1878
God’s purposes of love
Are spread below, above,
An open, everlasting scroll
To every wakeful soul,
All hearts of love, the Star
The Magi saw afar;
Prophets who touch His garment’s hem,
And angels, enter them.
Angels foretold the birth
Of three great ones on earth,
Children of Faith and Strength and Love,
Whose lives their titles prove:
Isaac as of the dead
Born to a nation’s head,
Samson, Salvation’s prophecy.
And Christ the Victory.
But mightiest of all
These wonders since the Fall,
In which Gabriel foretold
The lowly Maid of old,
Thy Kiss, O Love Divine,
To make our nature Thine,
The very letting down of Heaven
Unto Earth re-given.
My soul, my soul what said
The beautiful meek Maid,
When Gabriel such message brought
Higher than human thought
Can ever hope to reach
Much less our feeble speech?
Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
Let me fulfill Thy Word That greeting, unto Love,
God’s Angel from above,
How did it lift the Virgin up
To drink of Heaven’s cup?
How up the stair of woe
Through twilight did she go
Until she hailed Eternal Light
Where shadows pass from sight!
My soul, my soul do thou
In every meekness bow,
To take the Kiss of Love Divine,
And make His wishes thine.
Whate’re those wishes be
This spirit be in thee:
Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
Let me fulfill Thy Word. My soul! my soul! oh then
Such thou be born again,
The Saviour, Christ the Lord in thee
Be born eternally!
While up the stairs of woe
In twilight that thou go
Till thou art fitted for the Light
Too pure for mortal sight.
