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 carpenter



Then 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 walked



He 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 city



Yes here was a man



Though 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 devine purpose that brought him to this world



While 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 trial



And 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 robe



When 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 destiny



I 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 life



Here was a man (joy to the world the Lord is come)