Christmas is Coming!

I love Christmas, especially the music! So during this holiday season, and for the next four Tuesdays, I will be sharing the history of some of the most beloved Christmas carols.

Hope you can join me and enjoy the deeper meaning of these beautiful songs.

The first is... "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"

"Then the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which be to all people."   Luke 2:10

Charles Wesley wrote this beloved carol in  1739. That makes this song 274 years old! : )

I remember watching a film a few years ago about the Wesley brothers and how God moved them into ministry, which is now known as the Methodist movement.  A ministry that started out rough. They weren't exactly welcomed into the churches of the day because they preached with the power of the Gospel, something many churches had fallen away from.

Charles loved music and when he came to Christ and was born again, he began to write many beloved songs. Over 6000!

"He wrote constantly, and even on horseback his mind was flooded with new songs. He often stopped at houses along the road and ran in asking for 'pen and ink.'"

His songs were filled with Biblical doctrine and his love for the Word spilled out onto the pages of each song he wrote.

Charles's songs became very popular and many wanted to publish them, but Charles was adamant that none of his words be changed.

He is quoted as saying here:

"Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honor to reprint many of our hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them, for they are really not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore, I must beg of them these two favors: either to let them stand just as they are, to take things for better or worse, or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men."

The funny thing is that "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" was not the original first line to this song. It was actually: "Hark, how all the welkin rings, 'Glory to the King of kings"

Charles's dear friend, George Whitefield somehow convinced him to change that first line to: " Hark! the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king" and later published it that way and it's been like that ever since.

I've always loved singing and hearing Christmas carols in acapella. They just seem so much richer and powerful that way. Looking around for a video to share I came across this one. I don't know who they are, but they sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in beautiful acapella harmony.

       Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th’ angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come,
offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’ incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give us second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”

Come, Desire of nations, come,
fix in us thy humble home;
rise, the woman’s conquering Seed,
bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
stamp thine image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new born King!”

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

*All quotes from Robert J. Morgan's book "Then Sings My Soul: Book 1" a collection of great hymn stories.


Buy it HERE on Amazon