Here Was a Man

(Joy to the world, the Lord is come)

Here was a man, a man

Who was born in a small village

The son of a peasant woman

He grew up in another small village

Until he reached the age of thirty

He worked as a carpenterThen for three years

He was a traveling minister

But he never traveled more

Than two hundred miles from

Where he was born and

Where he did go he usually walkedHe never held political office

He never wrote a book

Never bought a home

Never had a family

He never went to college

And he never set foot inside a big cityYes, here was a manThough he never did one on the things

Usually associated with greatness

He had no credentials but himself

He had nothing to do with this world

Except through the divine purpose

That brought him to this worldWhile he was still a young man

The tide of popular opinion turned against him

Most of his friends ran away

One of them denied him

One of them betrayed him

And turned him over to his enemies

Then he went through the mockery of a trialAnd was nailed to a cross between two thieves

And even while he was dying

His executioners gambled

For the only piece of property

That he had in this world

And that was his robe his purple robeWhen he was dead

He was taken down from the cross

And laid in a borrowed grave

Provided by compassionate friends

More than nineteen centuries have come and gone

And today he's a centerpiece of the human race

Our leader in the column to human destinyI think, I'm well within the mark when I say

That all of the armies that ever marched

All of the navies that ever sailed the seas

All of the legislative bodies that ever sat

And all of the kings that ever reigned

All of them put together have not affected

The life of man on this earth

So powerfully as that one solitary lifeHere was a man

(Joy to the world, the Lord is come)