Virgin-born, we bow before thee

Virgin-born, we bow before thee. Reginald Heber* (1783-1826). This is from the volume published after Heber’s death, Hymns written and adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (1827), where it was placed as a hymn for the Third Sunday in Lent. It had four 4-line stanzas. It came into A&M in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition (1875) as a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, with the invocation ‘Blessed is the womb that bare Thee’; A&M 1904 adds ‘and the paps which thou hast sucked’: Virgin-born, we bow before Thee:Blessèd was the womb that bore Thee;  Mary, maid and mother mild,  Blessèd was she in her child. Blessèd was the breast that fed Thee; ‘Blessèd was the hand...