As this is its third year running, “Give Good Gifts” seems to have become our Christmas Eve tradition. This 19th-century Shaker hymn is a song for all seasons and spiritual inclinations. Its admonition, “peace, joy and comfort, gladly bestow,” is especially timely as we near the end of a year full of anxiety and conflict.
The performers are the Pro Arte Singers, led by Paul Hillier. If you’d like to sing along, the lyrics are below the link :
Give good gifts, one to another,
Peace, joy and comfort, gladly bestow;
Harbor no ill ’gainst sister or brother,
Smoothe life’s journey as you onward go.
Broad as the sunshine, free as the showers,
So shed an influence blessing to prove;
Give for the noblest of efforts your powers,
Blest and be blest, is the law of love.
Letter V 