We had our Sunday School Christmas program at church this morning. I had fun putting this program together. The third through sixth grade students read Scripture, the little ones posed for a nativity scene during the singing of Away in a Manger, friends of ours provided some special music and our teens lit the Advent candles and performed a skit involving texting, to which the Pastor had a very interesting reply (see bottom right)!
For those of you who asked me to post my Advent writings this year, here's the story behind another well-known Christmas hymn and some of my thoughts as well. As always, you are not obligated to read this, but I truly appreciate it when you do!
Major John Humphreys and his wife Elizabeth were blessed with three children. As a land agent and the 4th Earl of Wicklow, his children were never found wanting. Their youngest child and second daughter Cecil showed early on to have a way with words. She began writing poems and verse in her childhood owing a great deal of influence to Dr. Walter Hook the Dean of Chichester. Subsequently Cecil's religious works became strongly influenced by the Oxford Movement. Concerned over the secular influence of the English parliament, the church leaders and academics of this movement stressed liturgy, sacred art, and the sacraments as foundational to worship. They believed that the mantle of leadership and divine authority had been passed down from the apostles to the church fathers and on to the bishops of the church. John Keble, a fellow at Oriel College, was one of the movement's well-known leaders and Cecil was particularly impressed with his ideologies. Using various pseudonyms Cecil contributed lyric and narrative poems as well as translations of French poetry to the Dublin University Magazine. Keble edited one of her anthologies and by the 1840's she was well-known as a hymn writer with some of her compositions being included in the Church of Ireland hymnbooks.
In 1848, Cecil published her book entitled "Hymns for Little Children". Her particular goal for the book was to educate children in religious knowledge. This is quite noticeable with sacraments such as baptism and the promises attached to those sacraments being highly emphasized in her lyrics. But perhaps the most profound impact that Cecil's book produced was the publication of three hymns related to phrases recited in the Apostle's Creed. "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (...Maker of heaven and earth), "Once in Royal David's City" (...Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary), and "There is a Green Hill Far Away" (...suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried...). The book reached its 69th edition before the close of the 19th century and her hymns are known world over by Christians of many denominations. Cecil married the Anglican clergyman William Alexander in 1850 causing a bit of a stir in her family as she was 6 years older than he. Perhaps most impressive though is her donation of the profits from her book to the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, a name which we might balk at today, but a school that was certainly a worthy cause.
The year after Once in Royal David's City was published Henry John Gauntlett discovered the poem and set it to music. Born in Britain in 1805, he was somewhat of a child prodigy. The son of a preacher, he became his father's organist as age 9! He not only continued on the path of a musical career but also became a lawyer and didn't focus solely on music until he was 40 years old. After serving as an organist for several prestigious churches in London, he designed and built a magnificent pipe organ for St. Olave's in Southwark, which he stayed on to install and perfect between 1844 to 1846. His collaboration on Once in Royal David's City was one of thousands of hymn tunes he wrote through the years but certainly "Irby" as it was named is his most famous.
There have been many well-know collaborators in popular music: Rogers and Hammerstein, Lennon and McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Bernie Taupin and Elton John, and so many more. It is always impressive when two creative personalities can join ideas into words and music. But what if the two parties collaborating on a "work" were of two different realities and spanned a time period of 700 years?! Such is the case with Micah's prophecy concerning the birthplace of the Messiah and His actual birth in the town of Bethlehem many centuries later.
Although it appears that Henry Gauntlett and Cecil Alexander could have met since they were contemporaries, it seems they never did. However, there was no possible way the prophet Micah could have interviewed Mary and Joseph before Christ's birth to determine that His birthplace would be Bethlehem. Nor did he have any inkling that an empire such as the Roman Empire would arise and dictate a census that would direct Mary and Joseph to the city of their ancestors. In Micah's day the Neo-Assyrian Empire had pillaged and plundered its way through the Fertile Crescent and was seemingly invincible. Who would have thought a ruler over Israel would be born in a small agricultural suburb of Jerusalem? Of course, as the Third Person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit knew all these things and so inspired Micah to pen his prophecy. Many years afterwards, a devout and thoughtful young woman was also inspired to teach children about the significance of that prophecy and a talented musician took her words and put them to song, so that our voices can reiterate the prophecy today:
Once in royal David's city,
Stood a lowly cattle shed.
Where a mother laid her baby,
In a manger for His bed.
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.
If you like to read more about this prophecy and its fulfillment, read the Book of Micah, chapter 5:2-5a in the Old Testament, and the Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12 in the New Testament. If you have any questions or comments and would like to contact me personally, my email is Olivetreeann@yahoo.com. Make a note in the subject box 365 Advent so that I know that the email is for real and not spam!
Thank you Kerri, Claire, Dione, Nicole, and Diane!
@daisy Thank you Kathryn! The Bible is a truly amazing book! And the Bibles which divide it up into segments so that you can read it in one year are a great way to cover it from cover to cover.
@cimes1 Thank you Carole!
Thank you Sandi, Vikki, and Taffy!