You help make Hymnary.org possible.

In 2025, more than 10 million people from 200+ countries found hymns, liturgical resources, and encouragement here. If Hymnary has meant something to you this year, would you take a moment to help sustain it? A gift of any size — and a note of encouragement, if you'd like to share one — directly supports the server costs, research, and curation that keep this resource freely available to the world.

Give securely online today, or mail a check to:
Hymnary.org (c/o Calvin University)
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Thank you for being part of this important online ministry resource.

9565. Glad Was The Message

1 Glad was the message, and joyous the strain,
Brought to the shepherds on Bethlehem’s plain;
Chanted by angels who came from above
Bearing glad tidings of mercy and love;
Bringing good news to the nations of earth,
News of a Savior, whose glorious birth
Gave to this sad world a message of peace,
Bidding its woe and its warfare to cease.

2 Lo! in the manger the Savior is laid;
Earth has no refuge, no place for His head;
Sojourner, stranger, and wanderer here,
Dark was His lot, and His pilgrimage drear;
But in His mercy and kindness He came,
Seeking to win us from sorrow and shame;
Bidding the troubled to come and be blessed;
Calling the way-worn and weary to rest.

3 Oh, may we ponder and keep in our mind
God’s wondrous mercy in saving mankind;
Sending His Son who, in seeking the lost,
Lay in the manger and hung on the cross;
Following Him, by His help and His grace,
We shall be with Him and gaze on His face;
Then with the ransomed and glorified throng,
We shall adore Him with harp and with song.

Text Information
First Line: Glad was the message, and joyous the strain
Title: Glad Was The Message
Author (attributed to): Horace L. Hastings
Meter: 10.10.10.10 D
Language: English
Source: Songs of Pilgrimage (Boston: Scriptural Tract Repository, 1888)
Copyright: Public Domain
Tune Information
Name: NEWKIRK
Composer: Abraham Dow Merrlll (1845)
Meter: 10.10.10.10 D
Key: G Major
Copyright: Public Domain



Media
Adobe Acrobat image: PDF
MIDI file: Midi
Noteworthy Composer score: Noteworthy Composer Score
More media are available on the tune authority page.

Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.