O Holy Night

“For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder. These will be his royal titles: “Wonderful,” “Counselor,” “The Everlasting Father,” “The Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6 [The Living Bible]

Is it any wonder that the night Jesus was born was so special?  He was heralded as a King yet He was much more than a king. He was God; God come to man.

That first Christmas night Jesus came to bring spiritual peace to our hearts as He was born and died for us. But we continue to look forward to that day when He will come to earth again and this time bring complete peace as He rules the world.
O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt His worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder beams a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine! O night when Christ was born!
O night divine! O night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here came the wise men from the Orient land

The King of Kings lay in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend
He knows our need
To our weakness no stranger
Behold your King! before the lowly bend!
Behold your King! before Him bend!

Truly he taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus rise we
Let all within us praise His holy name
Christ is the Lord
Then ever, ever praise we
His pow’r and glory ever more proclaim
His pow’r and glory ever more proclaim

 
I’ve discovered that “O Holy Night”, my very favorite Christmas carol, is also noted to be one of the worlds most favorite.  I believe it is because its lyrics and melody are a perfect combination and uplift our souls to God Himself.  So I was surprised when I read that the writer was only an occasional church attendee.

Placide Cappeau (1808-1877) lived in Roquemaure, France.  He was a wine merchant and mayor.  Once in a while he went to church.  He was preparing to go on a business trip when his parish priest asked him to write a special poem for Christmas mass.  And so it happened that this beloved carol was created in a dusty coach traveling down a bumpy road.  Cappeau imagined himself being present at the birth of Jesus that long ago night in Bethlehem and by the time he reached Paris “O Holy Night” was complete. Being French, Cappeau wrote the lyrics in French “Cantique de Noel”.

Cappeau decided this poem must become a song and approached his friend, Adolphe Charles Adams, to compose the perfect melody for it.  Adams was a master musician who had written Giselle just a few years ago.  He composed works for operas and ballets all over the world. His father also was a well known classical musician.
Cappeau’s request was a real challenge to him.  Adams was of Jewish ancestry and he didn’t celebrate Christmas.  I am amazed that God gave him this beautiful melody even when he didn’t believe that the Jesus the lyrics spoke of was the Son of God.  Adams wrote the melody and it was first heard in public three weeks later during Midnight Mass, Christmas Eve, in Roquemaure in 1847.

At first the church in France accepted the carol and used it in Christmas services.  Later the church denounced it because of the reputations of both the poet and the composer.  Cappeau had left the church and became a social radical and was judged to be a non-Christian.  When the church discovered that Adams was a Jew they rejected the carol.  But it had already found its way into the French people’s hearts and they continued to sing it.

In 1855 “O Holy Night” was published in London.  The carol was translated into many languages. The English version was written by John Sullivan Dwight.  He was a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts, US and a slave abolitionist. 
He was touched by the words, “Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease.” That freedom is exactly what he wished for the slaves in the South.  He translated the words and published the English carol in his magazine.  The people of America loved it.  It must have been part of the celebration that year because that was also the year that Christmas was made a legal holiday in Massachusetts.

There is a beautiful story told of how this carol was sung to bring peace to French and German troops on Christmas Eve in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. In the middle of their fighting, a French soldier jumped up out of the trench and began to sing the beginning of the French carol. Instead of attacking him and shooting him one of the German soldiers also emerged and sang a German carol. The soldiers called a truce for twenty-four hours in honor of Christmas.  Later the French church again accepted the beloved carol in their Christmas services.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night

 

“That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep.  Suddenly an angel appeared among them, and the landscape shone bright with the glory of the Lord.  They were badly frightened, but the angel reassured them.
‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone.’”  Luke 2:8 – 10 [The Living Bible]

At times I wonder why God chose shepherds and why these specific shepherds to proclaim the most wonderful news on earth- the birth of Christ. We can’t know God’s mind which is way above what we could ever think but I believe as we get to know Him in the Bible we began to understand His ways. 

I wonder if He chose these shepherds because they were close by; they were available.  And I wonder about the status of their hearts; were they waiting for the Messiah? Were they more open to the angel’s news than others?

God comes to us when we make ourselves available to Him; when we make time to meet with Him in worship, reading His Word and praying.  God manifests Himself to us often in the quietness, in that still small voice, in the middle of the quiet night.  Like the shepherds in the quiet night, outside the village away from the bustle of activities, we took can hear His special message to us this Christmas season: “Don’t be afraid!  I bring you the most joyful news.” 
While shepherd watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.

‘Fear not’ said he (for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind);
‘Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind.’

‘To you in David’s town this day
Is born of David’s line
A saviour, who is Christ the Lord;
And this shall be the sign:

The heavenly babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid.’

Thus spake the seraph and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

‘All glory be to God on high
And to the earth be peace;
Good will henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease.’

This well loved timeless carol is attributed to Nahum Tate (1652-1715). He wrote the lyrics based on the inspiring account of the angels visiting the shepherds in Luke chapter 2: “and there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field”. 

Tate was born in 1652 in Dublin, Ireland and was the son of a clergyman.  He wrote many plays and became England’s poet-laureate.  He also wrote the royally-sanctioned “New Version of the Psalms of David”, the Authorized Version used by the Church of England in its prayer book. This carol was first published as a hymn in the supplement of his Psalm collection in 1703. Until 1782 it was the only Christmas carol sanctioned by the Church of England probably because it replicated the Bible’s description of the shepherd’s experiences on that first Christmas night.

 Tate won infamy later in his life for trying to improve the endings to Shakespeare’s tragedies.  I can relate well to him here.  I hate sad endings.  Life has enough hardships and bad things.  I think all stories we create should have a happy ending.

A tune for the carol was written by Handel.  However, the tune now used is borrowed from “The Winchester Old” by Christopher Tye (1500-1572).  He was Master of the Choristers at Ely Cathedral.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

“That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly an angel appeared among them, and the landscape shone brightly with the glory of the Lord.  They were badly frightened, but the angel reassured them.
‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said, ‘I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone.
‘The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born tonight in Bethlehem.’ ”
Luke 2: 8-11 [The Living Bible]

The carol, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, only mentions Jesus once, saying, “Peace on the earth, good will to all, From heaven’s all gracious king.”  And that was God’s message to us.

The words the angels brought to a fallen and broken world was of peace and goodwill.  Angels proclaimed their message to a weary world. Isn’t that like our world today?  Isn’t that like us?  I think of the homeless, bending low, who toil along the way with painful steps and slow; the people who struggle with addictions and life threats; the people who have lost loved ones; the families who don’t speak to each other anymore.

We all long for peace.  These words are for us on days when our steps are painful and slow, when our forms are bent low. They give us hope of a better day when peace will reign on earth.  They assure us that eventually God will heal our brokenness. And this Christmas season we can be a part of bringing God’s peace to the needy and hurting by blessing them; by giving of our abundance.  We can bring the message of God’s love and peace to the hurting in our world.
1.It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold.
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The World in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

2. Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heav’nly music floats
O’er all the weary world.
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing.
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

3. And ye beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow:
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.

4. For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Comes round the age of gold.
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

The lyrics of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” were born out of a pastor’s struggle to make the message of Christmas new to his congregation.  His people, like us, heard the same message every Christmas; Jesus is born.  After a while it becomes mundane and we value it a little less.

But Edmund Sears, who was thirty-nine at the time and a Unitarian minister from Wayland, Massachusetts, found a way to make the message new. As he read the Christmas story of how the angels proclaimed Christ’s birth to the shepherds, he must have thought, what else is there to say about God who came as a baby to save us from sin and despair?

This all happened in the year of 1849 long before The War Between the States.  Slavery with the poverty and hopelessness it brought reigned in the US. Edmund Sears cared about the poor and wanted to reach out to them. So he wrote the poem which became a treasured Christmas carol, lasting through the centuries.

The poem was published in a church magazine and made Sears famous with his profound words.  Later Richard Storrs Willis, who is thought to have been a student of Felix Mendelssohn, composed the melody for this carol. Willis was an editor and music critic for the New York Tribune. Here is an interesting fact: the acceptance of this carol was the beginning of celebrating Christmas in New England as a holiday, which has been prohibited by the Puritans until now.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, the well known American poet, said that this is one of the finest and most beautiful hymns ever written.  And I believe as we sing it this Christmas season the same thought resonates in our hearts.

In the same way that Dr. Sears wanted the Christmas message to touch his church’s heart again I too wanted to make the Christmas story real to our children.  That is why I wrote and published a new Christmas book, A Christmas Present for Goliath.  This story is about the camel who carried the Magi’s gifts to Jesus that first Christmas so long ago.  You can learn about this book and order it at my website www.ruthwillms.com/goliath.html