HARK!

As you rush about today with your last minute preparations for Christmas, I trust that you will open your heart and listen to the angels sing!  Perhaps you can take a musical break instead of a coffee break and imagine yourself on the Judean hills with the shepherds as the heavens opened with multitudes of angels praising God!
Perhaps that is what Charles Wesley was doing when he received the inspiration for this beautiful carol that we like to sing at Christmas!

     "Charles Wesley, author of this well-loved carol, was one of the most prolific hymn writers of all time, contributing more than 6,500 hymn texts to Christian tradition.  Born in Lincolnshire, England, he was the youngest of 18 children.  His father, Samuel, was a poor country parson; and his mother, Susanna, was a model of Christian piety, spending at least two hours a day in prayer.  It is not surprising that two of their sons, John and Charles, became theological giants of the 18th century.

      After his ordination as an Anglican priest in 1735, Charles spent one year in British North America serving as secretary to General Oglethorpe.  On his return journey to England, Charles's faith was put to a very practical test.  Caught in a violent storm, his ship lost much of its cargo and began taking on water at an alarming rate.  Wesley recorded the following:  'I bless God, I found the comfort of hope; and such joy in finding I could hope as the world could neither give nor take away.'  Emboldened in the midst of this trial, Wesley urged his fellow passengers 'to resolve, if God saved them from this distress, that they would instantly and entirely give themselves up to Him.'

      Just 18 months later, near death from dysentery and pleurisy, Wesley experienced a divine healing that served to fan the fires of evangelism in his heart.  Becoming an itinerant preacher and prolific hymn writer, he communicated Biblical doctrine through sermon and song.  It was during the early years of his ministry that he composed the verses of  'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.'

      Originally sung to a variety of melodies, the hymn did not take its current form until 1857, when William Cummings, an English musician, set Wesley's words to a passage of music by Felix Mendelssohn.  Cummings created an arrangement that adapted it perfectly for Wesley's hymn text.  It was soon renowned as one of the "great four Anglican hymns" of the 19th century.
Each Christmas since then, countless choirs, carolers and congregations have raised their voices with the angels, singing 'GLORY TO THE NEWBORN KING!'"

     "Hark!  The herald angels sing, Glory to the new-born King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!
      Joyful; all ye nations rise; Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic host proclaim: Christ is born in Bethlehem!
      Hark! the herald angels sing; glory to the new-born King!

 Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord!
      Late in time behold Him come, off-spring of a Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the God-head see; Hail the incarnate Deity!
      Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel!
Hark! the herald angels sing; glory to the new-born King!    

      Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace!  Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings!
      Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
      Hark! the herald angels sing; glory to the new-born King!"