Abashed Be All the Boast of Age

Abashed be all the boast of age,
Be hoary learning dumb,

Abashed be all the boast of age,
Be hoary learning dumb,
Expounded of the mystic page,
Behold an infant come.

O Wisdom, whose unfading power
Beside the Eternal stood,
To frame, in nature’s earliest hour,
The land, the sky, the flood;

Yet didst not Thou disdain awhile
An infant form to wear;
To bless thy mother with a smile,
And lisp thy faltered prayer.

But, in thy Father’s own abode,
With Israel’s elders round,
Conversing high with Israel’s God,
Thy chiefest joy was found.

So may our youth adore thy name,
And, Saviour, deign to bless
With fostering grace the timid flame
Of early holiness.

Reginald Heber