In royal robes of splendor

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In royal robes of splendor

Translator: Jackson Mason; Author: Adam, de Saint-Victor
Tune: STOLA REGIA
Published in 4 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. In royal robes of splendor,
Before the great King’s feet,
The princes of His kingdom,
The crowned apostles, meet;
To Him their songs adoring
With heart and tongue they bring,
Pure hearts and mighty voices—
E’en as the angels sing.

2. This Order sheds its luster
O’er all the human race;
A court of righteous judgment,
The rock of Gospel grace;
Rock of His Church, for ages
Elected and foreknown;
Whose glorious master builder
Is head and cornerstone.

3. These are the Nazareans,
Famed heralds to the world,
Who, preaching Christ, His banner
Of victory unfurled;
Day unto day shows knowledge;
Night utters speech to night;
So these to earth’s four corners
Their wondrous tale recite.

4. Christ’s burden light they proffer,
His easy yoke proclaim;
The seed of life they scatter,
That all may own His name.
The earth brought forth and budded,
Where’er their ploughshare ran,
And fruits of increase followed
The faith of God made man.

5. These are the sure foundation
On which the Temple stands;
The living stones compacting
That house not made with hands;
The gates by which man enters
Jerusalem the new;
The bond which knits together
The Gentile and the Jew.

6. Let error flee before them,
Let truth extend her way;
Let dread of final judgment
To faith and love give way;
That, loosed from our offenses,
We then may numbered be
Among Thy saints in glory
Around the throne with Thee.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #3038

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Translator: Jackson Mason

Mason, Jackson, M.A., son of William Mason, Vicar of Normanton, was born at Normanton Vicarage, in 1833; and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; B.A. 1856. Ordained in 1858, he was Curate of Cantley, Yorkshire, 1858-59; Vicar of Pickhill, 1859-83; and Vicar of Settle from 1883 to his death, 1889. His Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, in English, was published in 1880. This work also contains translations of a few Latin hymns. To the 1889 Supplemental Hymns to Hymns Ancient & Modern, he contributed four translations from the Latin, one from the Greek, and the following original hymns:— (1) "Forty days Thy seer of old." (Easter.) (2) "O Voice of the Beloved." (Easter.) --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)… Go to person page >

Author: Adam, de Saint-Victor

Adam of St. Victor. Of the life of this, the most prominent and prolific of the Latin hymnists of the Middle Ages, very little is known. It is even uncertain whether he was an Englishman or a Frenchman by birth. He is described by the writers nearest to his own epoch, as Brito, which may indicate a native of either Britain, or Brittany. All that is certainly known concerning him is, that about A.D. 1130, after having been educated at Paris, he became, as quite a young man, a monk in the Abbey of St. Victor, then in the suburbs, but afterwards through the growth of that city, included within the walls of Paris itself. In this abbey, which, especially at that period, was celebrated as a school of theology, he passed the whole of the rest of h… Go to person page >

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