Robert J. Morgan - Come Let Us Adore Him: Stories Behind the Most Cherished Christmas Hymns

COME LET US
ADORE HIM

STORIES BEHIND THE MOST CHERISHED
CHRISTMAS HYMNS

ROBERT J. MORGAN

To:

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From:

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Date:

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Copyright 2005 by Robert J. Morgan

Published by J. Countryman, a division of the Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee 37214

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

J. Countryman is a trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations used in this book are from the New King James Version of the Bible 1979, 1980, 1982, 1992, Thomas Nelson, Inc.,Publisher.

Project Editor: Kathy Bake

Design: Jackson Design Co, LLC

ISBN 1404102329,

Printed and bound in the United States of America

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To Christiana

Table of Contents

Blessed is the season which engages
the whole world in a conspiracy of love!

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

Christmas is a season for singinga midwinters epoch of joyful musicand the hymns of Christmas are among the bestknown songs in the world. Beginning on that wondrous night when angelic choirs hovered over Bethlehems fields and down to our own day, Yuletide carols have cheered the world with the greatest news in history. No wonder we sing them from our earliest days to our grayest years.

But not everyone can sing openly this Christmas.

When a group of Korean business leaders recently visited our church, I asked them about the plight of Christians in North Korea.They have suffered greatly, was the sad reply. There has been terrible persecution, and thousands of Christians have died for their faith; yet many believers still worship despite danger and death threats. When they gather, its in complete secrecy; and when they sing, it is done in silence. They open their mouths in unison, but they allow no sound from their voices for fear of being overheard.

The next Sunday, I sang with renewed intensity. It would have been a shame to miss the privilege of lifting my voice to the Lord with all my heart. To paraphrase something Ruth Bell Graham once told me, We should sing when we feel like it, for it is a shame to miss such an opportunity; we should sing when we dont feel like it, for it is dangerous to remain in such a condition.

Especially at Christmas.

Of our all holy days, its the Season of the Advent that most invites our songs. In fact, we have a special name for Christmas hymns. We call them carols, a word coming from an old Latin word meaning choral song.

This volume spans the ages of Christianity, telling the stories of carols ancient and modern. Here youll find the background of our bestknown Christmas hymns, plus a few stories of great carols that have nearly been lost to history.

With this little volume, we invite you: O Come, Let Us Adore Him!

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the LORD Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.

P SA L M 4 7 : 1 2 , 6 8

1531

Then God blessed them, and God
said to them, Be fruitful and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it...

GENESIS 1 : 2 8

M artin Luther never expected to marry, for he had taken a vow of celibacy as an Augustinian monk. Even after discovering the great Reformation truths of Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, he still intended to keep his vow. As the Reformation picked up steam and other monks began to marry, he exclaimed, Good heavens! They wont give me a wife!

It wasnt just monks who were renouncing their celibacy, however; it was nuns, too. When Luther heard that a group of nuns from a nearby cloister wanted to escape their situation (which in their case amounted to virtual captivity) he agreed to help them, though doing so was a serious violation of the law. Enlisting the aid of a local merchant named Leonard Kopp, age sixty, Luther arranged for the nuns to be smuggled out in the empty barrels used to deliver herring to the nunnery. It was a fishy plan if ever there was one, but it worked.

Having liberated these women, Luther now felt responsible for placing them in homes. He managed to find husbands for all but one Katharina Von Bora. Two years passed, and Luther was deeply troubled by his failure to find her a husband. She was now twentysix years old, brilliant and effervescent, but still unclaimed.

In a visit to his parents, Luther, age fortytwo, joked that he might have to marry Katharina himself. His dad heartily endorsed the idea, and the two were married on June 27, 1525.

By autumn, Katharina informed Martin that she was pregnant, and Luther cheerfully announced, My Katharina is fulfilling Genesis 1:28 the verse about being fruitful and multiplying.

Theres about to be born a child of a monk and a nun, he bragged to friends. Accordingly, little Hans was born on June 7, 1526.

Luther was devoted to his son, and five years later he wrote this Christmas carol for him. Luther called it a Christmas childs song concerning the child Jesus, and it was sung each year during the Christmas Eve festivities at Luthers massive homea former Augustinian monasteryon the upper end of Wittenbergs main street.

For over five hundred years it has been one of Lutheranisms greatest carols, delighting children today just as it thrilled little Hans in the sixteenth century.

The mystery of the humanity of Christ,
that He sunk Himself into our flesh,
is beyond all human understanding.

MARTIN LUTHER

These are fine, heartwarming wordsthat God
wants to come down to us, God wants to come to
us and we do not need to clamber up to him, he
wants to be with us to the end of the world.

MARTIN LUTHER

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

JOHN1:14

For little children everywhere
A joyous season still we make;
We bring our precious gifts to them,
Even for the dear child Jesus sake.

PHOEBE CARY

From Heaven Above to Earth I Come

1654

I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

PSALM 9:2

P aul Gerhardt might be called the Charles Wesley of Germany, for he was a prolific hymnist who gave Lutheranism some of its warmest hymns.