Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

One of the carols/hymns that Colonial Americans sang after moving away from the Puritan banning of Christmas celebrations was "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley.

Charles Wesley

Wesley was the youngest of eighteen children born to a Church of England minister and his wife. He wrote an average of ten verses every day for more than fifty years, estimated at almost 9,000 hymns.

The original version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” wouldn't be recognizable to many listeners today, because, when Wesley published this hymn in 1739, its first words were "Hark! How All the Welkin Rings," and it was sung in a slow and solemn way to the tune of his Easter hymn, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.” You see, for Wesley, Christ’s birth was inextricably connected to His death and resurrection, and he wanted to make that point by using the same tune for both songs.

Wesley's brother, John, and other friends often altered Charles’s works when they thought it would serve a good purpose. "Welkin," which means "vault of heaven," was already an antiquated word in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. The evangelist George Whitefield thought the word "welkin" would confuse people and changed the first line of Wesley's hymn to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and included it in his own anthology of hymns published in 1753.

In the preface to the 1780 edition of Hymns and Sacred Poems, John Wesley expressed his disfavor toward people who changed his music saying, “Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honour to reprint many of our Hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome so to do, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them; for they really are not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore, I must beg of them one of these two favours; either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better or worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.”

In 1840, Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, and it is music from this cantata that the English musician William H. Cummings adapted to fit the lyrics of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”—the version we are most familiar with today.




Here's a link to an older version --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjYobIhPUVI

and this is the modern version --
http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=SFjMPaOBzXc

Susan F. Craft is the award-winning author of a Revolutionary War romantic suspense, The Chamomile. Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas will release two of her post-Revolutionary War books -- Laurel on January 12, 2015, and Cassia on September 14, 2014.

The First Great Awakening Changed America

In the mid 1700s, traveling evangelists like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley preached along the countryside of the British colonies, and the seeds were planted for America to become a great nation.

It really started almost 100 years earlier, in 1630, when John Winthrop, one of the Pilgrims, preached a sermon entitled A City on a Hill. The text for the verse was Matthew 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Winthrop said that God ordained the colonies in America to be that city on a hill. They were the New Jerusalem that would evangelize the world with the Gospel.

Over the next eighty years, colonists forgot those awesome words and had drawn away from God. Church attendance was at an all time low, and few felt Christianity played a major role in their lives. Church service were dry and dull, and most who did go to church did so out of religious duty.

When these preachers came on the scene it changed America for the better. They were fiery, emotional, and commanded attention. When Jonathan Edwards preached Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God, it was reported members of the congregation held on to the church beams fearing the wrath of God and the fire of Hell. Conviction spread all over the colonies, and people responded by having a "born again" experience with God that changed their lives forever.

Many denominations rose up during this awakening including Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. Christians now felt they could have a personal experience with God and learn Scripture and doctrine for themselves instead of only relying on church leaders. Congregational leadership was determined by the congregations, not by church headquarters.

One of the biggest changes that took place during this awakening was that everyone was included. Slaves and poor men came to the meetings and were saved. It created a national unity and identity that later set the stage for the American Revolution where men fought for One Nation Under God. not a nation ruled by a denomination or a state church. The colonies had learned that the people decide on the leaders that rule them instead of letting the rulers dictate their nation's politics and religion.

John Wesley "He hath reconciled me"

Mr. Spangenberg, one of the German (Moravian) pastors to greet John Wesley on the shores of Georgia asked the then Church of England preacher:

"Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?" February 1736

John Wesley did not know how to answer this question. He had not yet learned the true power of the Gospel. He had not yet learned for himself the Gospel salvation for sinners. Do you?

During this time, men were required to run the race of "Christian holiness with a load of guilt upon their consciences, and with the corruption of their nature unsubdued by renewing grace." John Wesley - Evangelist, Richard Green, Edgbaston, 1905.

Prior to his conversion, John Wesley states (in a document entitled, "Mr. Wesley's Conversion, Nettleton Court, off Aldersgate Street") that he believed that he "had not sinned away" that washing of the Holy Ghost believed to be given to him when he was baptized as an infant. He had been taught that he could only be saved "by universal obedience, by keeping all the commandments of God."

But his spirit was not at peace. He could not reconcile in his mind the words of the Moravian pastors. When he returned to England, January 1738, he "was strongly convinced that the cause of that uneasiness was unbelief, and that the gaining a true, living faith was the on thing needful" for him.

Wesley struggled with the Gospel he heard from Peter Bohler, a man God put in Wesley's way. But finally he determined to consult the Scripture and "set aside the glosses of men, and simply considered the words of God, comparing them together, endeavoring to illustrate the obscure by the plainer passages...." By God's Word and the salvation testimonies of saved men, the Holy Spirit spoke truth to Wesley's heart. He absolutely renounced all dependence upon his own works or righteousness and gave full reliance on the shed blood of Christ to be his sole justification, sanctification, and redemption--his salvation.

In 1748, when John Wesley published one of his earlier sermons, he wrote:

"but likewise the revelation of Christ in our hearts; a divine evidence or conviction of His love, His free, unmerited love to me a sinner; a sure confidence in His pardoning mercy, wrought in us by the Holy Ghost; a confidence whereby every true believer is enabled to hear witness. I know that my redeemer liveth; that I have an Advocate with the Father, and that Jesus Christ the righteous is my Lord, and the propitiation for MY sins. I know He hath loved. He hath reconciled me, even me to God; and I have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." John Wesley - Evangelist, Richard Green, Edgbaston, 1905.

In a meeting on May 24, 1738 at Nettleton Court, off Aldersgate Street, John Wesley's perception of salvation changed. He finally grasped Christ's atonement. Do you grasp Christ's atonement for you, personally? Or are you relying on the traditions of your church (such as baptism or sacraments) or your family or on various good works?

If someone asked you, "Does the Spirit of God witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?" How would you answer?

About 40 years ago I read a similar question in a Vacation Bible School take-home paper, and like Wesley, I did not know how to answer it. A few years earlier I had sat on my bed and prayed that Jesus would take me to heaven when I died, but I did not know for sure that He would. A sense of urgency filled me. I needed to know the answer.

The next morning I could hardly contain myself while I listened to the Bible story. I was anxiously awaiting the invitation so I could go forward and settle the question. When the invitation came, I spoke to my teacher, telling her that I wanted to be saved.

Using a book with colored pages and no words, and by quoting Scripture, she showed me that I was a sinner in need of salvation, that Jesus paid for my sins and is preparing a place for me in Heaven, should I accept His free gift of eternal life. I didn't need to be baptized to be saved. I didn't need to take communion. I didn't need to join the church. I didn't need to regularly confess to any man. I didn't need to do endless amounts of good works. I simply needed to acknowledge that I was a sinner in need of God's grace and confess with my mouth my faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the payment of my sins.

The instant that I did I had peace. Despite my sister ragging me for making others wait, I walked out of the church knowing that the question was settled. I was a child of God. I will be with Jesus in Heaven when I die.

How about you? Are you saved? Can you share with us the moment that you knew you were a child of God?