CAROLS AT CHRISTMASTIDE
"Christina Rossetti strikes her highest notes in her Christmas songs.
One is her delightful rhapsody:
"'Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.'
"The other is one written for her god-children:
"'The shepherds had an angel,
The wise men had a star,
But what have I, a little child,
To guide me home from far?--'
delicate, humble, wondering, trustful."
"I would like also to call attention to the new note contributed in
Mr. Laurence Housman's hymn:
"'The Maker of the sun and moon,
The Maker of our earth,
Lo! late in time, a fairer boon,
Himself is brought to birth.'
. . . . .
"'O Perfect Love, outpassing sight,
O Light beyond our ken,
Come down through all the world to-night,
And heal the hearts of men.'"
--_Dr. F. Luke Wiseman in an address on "Christmas Hymns."_
Christmas Carols on Deck of Battleship
The battleship _Missouri_ will always hold a unique place in the history
of the United States, for on her, at the close of World War II, the
Japanese made their formal surrender. But about four months later
(December 21, 1945) a very different scene was witnessed on her deck.
That night more than one hundred members of the Choral Group of the New
York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn sang Christmas carols in sub-freezing
weather. Naturally the listening members of the appreciative crew
recalled the experiences of the previous Christmas, when they were
engaged in fighting World War II.
Beneath a string of 500-watt bulbs the chorus sang into a microphone.
Perhaps it was natural that they should begin with the familiar and
beloved carol written by Bishop Phillip Brooks:
"O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!"
Possibly some who listened made the words their heart prayer as the
singers rendered the words:
"O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today!"
Other carols were rendered, and then the singers concluded with:
"Silent night, holy night."
The songs of the glorious holiday season in a year that began in war and
ended in peace reminded the men of home and family. One of the sailors
remarked quietly to another: "I shall be home this Christmas for the
first time in four years."
Christmastide Song of Blind Singers
At the Christmas season before the second World War a sale and
entertainment were held in London under the auspices of the Greater
London Fund for the Blind. Among the attractive features of the program
during the afternoon and the evening was the rendering of Christmas
carols by a company of blind singers. A London periodical, commenting on
this part of the program, said that it was "especially impressive" when
the chorus rendered the peculiarly appropriate hymn of Bishop Reginald
Heber:
"Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
_Dawn on our darkness_ and lend us Thine aid;
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid."
Blind though they were, the singers were conscious of the fact that
Christ was the "Light of the world."
This hymn was first published in 1811. Several other very popular hymns
were written by the same author. Following his training at Oxford
University, he became rector at Hodnet, and, later, Missionary Bishop of
Calcutta, where this "man of learning and piety" lived only three years.
During this short period, however, he had the great satisfaction of
hearing this and another of his hymns ("The Son of God Goes Forth to
War") sung better than he "had ever heard them sung in a church before."
This was on the occasion of the dedication of a church at Meerut, India,
where in a remote situation, in sight of the Himalaya Mountains, he
found an excellent organ in what he described as "one of the earliest,
the largest and handsomest churches in India."
The blind singers of London chose well when they decided to sing the
hymn of this consecrated man.
Not Too Late to Hear the Christmas Music
Newspapers all over the United States on Christmas Day, 1945, carried
pictures of returning troops from the scenes of war, as they arrived in
the harbor of Los Angeles. The men were shown crowding the rails of the
boats, and on their faces there was a wistful look. Happiness and
disappointment were both registered. While they were privileged to see
their native land on another Christmas Day, after their long and hard
experiences in conflict, yet they were too late to join the Christmas
circles in their homes.
A group of singers, however, made the rounds of the various ships on a
greeter boat, and welcomed the warrior lads by the singing of Christmas
carols. Sweet was it to the men to hear the singers render the old
carol:
"O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels!"
When the chorus was reached many of the men on shipboard also sang or
hummed the lines:
"O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord."
The origin of this great Christian hymn is obscure. This observation is
made by Dr. Charles A. Boyd: "Here is another of the much loved hymns of
the church which we owe to the old Latin hymn-writers. They wrote not
for money or fame, but for the love of the writing, and for the praise
of Christ." A somewhat extended discussion of both hymn and tune is
found in the work of Dr. James Moffatt, and at the close he says: "The
conclusion seems to be that the hymn and tune came into use together, in
the services of the Roman Church, during the first part of the
eighteenth century; that they were in circulation in manuscript for some
time before they appeared in print, but that nothing definite can as yet
be stated as to the author of either words or music."
When a young high school student, whom I knew, attended the illumination
of a community Christmas tree she heard a chorus of Welsh voices, at
midnight on Christmas Eve, sing this carol. Several times before, very
naturally, she had heard it in church and school. But this night she
returned home full of enthusiasm, and said to her parents, "I never
before heard anything so beautiful!" Perhaps the returning troops had
just this feeling when they listened to this and other carols rendered
in the Christmas season of 1945, as they were welcomed back with joyful
song to the land for which they had victoriously fought.
Carol the Children Wanted
Two little girls jumped from their bed to listen to the choir of an
English church as they were making their rounds at Christmastide singing
carols, according to a local custom. They were, of course, singing the
old favorites, as they had been doing for a few successive evenings, and
they were tired. But this was their last call for the year.
The first selection was rendered when, according to the one who narrated
the incident in an English periodical (Mrs. Lyndon Hill), a bedroom
window was lifted, and two little girls leaned out and asked them to
sing the carol they most loved, "Away in a Manger." Soon the Christmas
callers were singing:
"Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay."
"In all our singing it had never occurred to us to sing this seemingly
childish carol," said the one who related the story; "but we did sing
it, and the beauty and simplicity of the words and tune struck me as
never before, as the two little voices joined with us. They seemed to be
the expression of all the wonder of God's gift of the Christ child in
the humility of His manger bed, and our singing took on new life as we
caught a vision of the utter simplicity of the Christmas message.... And
I never fail to receive inspiration from the mental picture of two
little sleepy girls at a bedroom window singing 'Away in a Manger.'"
And what an especially appropriate prayer it must have been for the
little girls when they closed the song with the words:
"Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay,
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there."