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O Little Town of Bethlehem
Written: 1868
Authors: Phillips Brooks (words) Lewis H. Redner
(music)
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The morning after the writer of
this beautiful carol was called "Home" the
mother of a little girl of five, who had been one
of his
special favorites, entered the room where the child
was playing. Holding the little face between
her hands, she said tearfully, "Bishop
Brooks has gone to Heaven." "
Oh, Mama!" was the reply, "How happy the
angels will be!" This little true story paints
but a part of the story of Phillips Brooks - preacher
extraordinare, lover of children, gifted orator,
poet, and above all, a believer - with all
his soul - in the divine Son of God of whom he preached
and for whom he lived.
The idea for this song had been
simmering in the heart of Phillips Brooks since 1865
when, on a trip abroad, he was able to spend Christmas
in Bethlehem. This for his
day, was unusual and was an experience he would never
forget. On Sunday, December 24, he rode on horseback
from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and as twilight was
falling, he went out to the field where tradition
says the shepherds saw the glory of the Lord. As
he looked toward the little town of Bethlehem, with
the moon acting as the illuminator and the stars
shining in the sky, he witnessed a scene much the
same as the shepherds had witnessed
almost 2000 years before.
Except for the absence
of the great light and the shepherds, nothing had
changed very much. Instead of a candle to light their
way, some who were traveling through the quiet streets
were using lamps. There also were no angels present,
yet the aura of the occasion lent a holy hush to
the surroundings. Speaking of this experience in
a letter to his Sunday school in Philadelphia, Phillips
Brooks wrote, "Again and again it seemed
I could hear voices telling each other of the `Wonderful
Night' of the Saviour's birth."
All this while
the words of a new carol were singing in his heart,
but it would not be until he came home to America
that he would write them down. This would not happen
until just a short while before Christmas 1868. He
was preparing the Christmas service for the Sunday
school and as he began to review the music he would
use, there flooded through his soul a re-echo of
the Christmas Eve he had spent in the shepherd fields
overlooking Bethlehem, and the carol that had been
singing in his heart since that time. He could contain
it no longer, and as it burst forth, he began to
write:
O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,
The silent stars
go by.
On and on it flowed until, as a river reaches the
sea, so his inspired words too reached the zenith
of what Christmas is all about as he exclaims, "0
come to us, abide with us, Our Lord, Emmanuel!"
Phillips
Brooks then hurriedly left his study and walked to
the home of Mr. Lewis Redner, who was the
organist of the church. Upon showing him his poem,
Mr. Redner consented to try his hand at writing an
appropriate melody. His effort proved successful,
and today in all of hymnology there can be found
no tune which so greatly enhances a set of words
as does this one.
There were many very happy children
that Christmas in the Sunday school of The Church
of the Holy Trinity
in Philadelphia as they sang, for the first time,
the carol that their own pastor had written for them.
In the years to come, it would be an important part
of each of their Christmas celebrations but
it would take more than twenty years before it would
receive general recognition and be sung around the
world. ABS
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