Some Christmas carols were originally written in Latin (O Come All Ye Faithful) or French (O Holy Night) and translated into English while others were written in English but come from another time and place – the 1700’s in England. These songs use English words that may be less familiar to us or not as commonly used today. One of these is also one of the most popular “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” I would suspect you know this song and many of the lines of it, but do you know where it came from and some of the key theological doctrines it features?
The Story
This Christmas carol was written by one of the most prolific songwriters in Christian history – Charles Wesley (the brother of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church), who composed more than 6,000 hymns. This hymn comes from a poem that he wrote about a year after his conversion and was first published in 1739 in Hymns and Sacred Poems. The tune that Wesley paired with this poem was the same tune that is used for his Easter classic, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” but that is not the tune most commonly used today. In 1855, a British musician named William Hayman Cummings adapted music from Felix Mendelssohn’s Festgesang to fit the poem, and this has become the predominant music used to sing this poem. The shift in the music did create a subtle change in the song, as it forced two stanzas to be combined into one; the original song was ten stanzas, but the song as commonly sung today is three verses that draws on the first six stanzas (the last four stanzas are typically omitted). This new tune also included a refrain that repeats the opening lines “Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king” (though the addition of a refrain may have already been added before the shift to this tune).
Not only has the tune changed from Wesley’s original vision, but so have some of the words. When Wesley published the poem, it was called “Hark, how the welkin rings.” This likely raises a question – what in the world is a welkin? This was another term used for heaven at the time. About 20 years after Wesley wrote the song, his friend George Whitefield (a prominent minister in his own right) made a few subtle changes to the song – including eliminating the reference to the “welkin” and instead using the familiar line of “the herald angels sing.” Most of the changes made by Whitefield appear to be in the first couple of stanzas (the first verse in the Mendelssohn-Cummings tune), as Wesley’s “Glory to the King of Kings” became “Glory to the newborn king” and “Nature rise and worship him/Who is born at Bethlehem” replaced the original line of “Universal Nature say/‘Christ the Lord is born to Day.’” Whitefield’s revision of this line was later revised by another writer to what we sing today, “With the angelic host proclaim/‘Christ is born in Bethlehem.’” Overall, the changes do not seem theological but rather make it more singable and memorable; I’m not sure if we would be singing it today if it still included the “welkin.”
The change in the tune occurred after Wesley’s death, so we have no way of knowing what he thought of the new tune. (A shift in the musical accompaniment of a hymn was not uncommon, so I’m not sure if he would have any problem with it – especially since it likely helped cause this hymn to endure.) However, the change in wording was something that happened during Wesley’s time – and something that seems to have happened to other of his songs, too. I have seen comments in which Wesley criticizes such changes, but none that directly address this particular revision by a friend of his. While we don’t know what Wesley thought of this change, it is a good reminder that Charles and John Wesley had major theological differences with George Whitefield but yet seem to have remained friends. In addition, it is interesting that Whitefield would still advocate the singing of this song composed by someone who had such strong theological differences (as the Wesleys rejected many doctrines of the Reformed tradition that Whitefield upheld). Once again, a Christmas song shows us how music can unify people of different theological backgrounds and how churches have used the resources of other traditions in their worship.
The Song
Things that are popular often reflect shallow theological thinking, but this song is an example of something that has been immensely popular and also teaches some very important theological truths. This was Wesley’s goal in songwriting, as he wanted to use songs to teach people good theology (especially those who might not have access to education and maybe not even be able to read). The song draws on various words and images found in Scripture (for example, the phrase “the Sun of Righteousness” is a reference to Malachi 4:2) while also teaching on their implications and key doctrines of the church.
After echoing the words of the angels about “peace on earth,” the song then moves to explain what that means. This peace happens because, as we sing in the first verse, Jesus comes so that “God and sinners [can be] reconciled.” It is a Christmas song that speaks of sin! This hope is not just for one nation but for all peoples, which is why we sing “joyful all ye nations rise,” and unites us with the singing of heaven and earth (“Joyful all ye nations rise/Join the triumphs of the skies”). Not only were humans groaning for God to come and save us, but all of creation was waiting and now rejoices. We see the grand vision of salvation; it is not just about me and God but about a restoration of God’s creation to Himself.
The song also has great language that describes the incarnation – God taking on flesh. The glory that Christ had in heaven before his birth is referenced (verse 2: “Christ by highest heaven adored/Christ the everlasting Lord”; Verse 3: “Mild he lays his glory by”) as well as the reality that he is God in the flesh (Verse 2: “Veil’d in flesh the Godhead see/Hail th’ incarnate Deity!/Pleased as man with men to dwell”, Jesus our Emmanuel). There is also a reference to the virgin birth, as Jesus is called the “Offspring of the virgin’s womb” in the second verse. That Jesus’s birth is not his origin but rather his appearance in history is also found in these words of the second verse: “Late in time behold-him come.” The reference to “late in time” is not that God was late (He never is!), but rather than in Christ’s coming, the last days have been ushered in (see Hebrews 1:2).
Not only does this song speak of how Christ comes to save us from our sin by coming in our appearance, it also looks forward to the resurrection hope that he brings through his resurrection. The third verse says that he is and that “Light and fife around he brings/Ris’n with healing in his wings” and that he is “Born that men no more may die/Born to raise the sons of earth/Born to give them second birth.” Alongside the truth of resurrection is the truth that in Christ, we are “born again.” Therefore, this is a song that invites us to sing along with the angels but also to make sure we have experienced the new birth that Jesus comes to bring in us.
In addition to pointing out the theology of the song, I thought it would be good to highlight a couple of the words we sing often in this song that arise because it was written in the same language but at a different time and in a different place – “Hark” and “Herald.” The word “herald” means messenger, pointing to the role of the angels as messengers in general but also in announcing the truth of Christ’s birth. The word “Hark” essentially meant “Listen up!” or “Pay close attention.” May we truly “hark” as we sing this song, paying attention to the wonderful truths that it proclaims and which we now stand as the “heralds” in spreading the message to those around us.
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