God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay;
Remember Christ our Savior,
Was born on Christmas Day.

These lines are the opening stanza of the English Christmas carol commonly known as “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.” The carol is traditional and anonymous, circulating in oral and printed forms by the eighteenth century and likely earlier. It belongs to the repertoire of seasonal street and church singing in England, where carols were performed by groups of singers during Christmastide. The phrase “rest you merry” reflects older English usage meaning “keep you merry” (with “you” as the object), and the stanza sets the carol’s consolatory tone: listeners are urged not to be “dismayed” but to remember the Nativity as a source of comfort and joy.

The stanza offers reassurance in the face of anxiety (“Let nothing you dismay”) by directing attention to the central Christian claim of Christmas: the birth of Christ. Its archaic blessing, “God rest you merry,” is not a call to “rest” in the modern sense but a wish that God keep the hearers joyful and steadfast. The carol’s emphasis is pastoral and communal—addressing “gentlemen” as a conventional form of direct address—framing the Nativity as good news meant to steady the heart. The simplicity of the diction and the imperative “Remember” make the verse function like a brief homily: consolation grounded in sacred history.

God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day,
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.

1) “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” (ye/you variation)
2) “God rest you merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay” (punctuation and lineation vary)
3) “Remember Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day” (Savior/Saviour spelling variation)