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Brightest and Best
Author: Reginald Heber Meter: 11.10.11.10 Appears in 916 hymnals Topics: Year A Christmas Day 1; Year B Christmas Day 1; Year C Christmas Day 1 First Line: Brightest and best of the stars of the morning Lyrics: 1 Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our midnight and lend us your aid.
Star of the East the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
2 Cold on his cradle the dew-drops are shining,
God's holy Child with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore while this baby lies sleeping,
Maker and Monarch and Savior of all.
3 Shall we not offer our costly devotion,
fragrance of Edom and offerings divine,
Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,
myrrh from the forest or gold from the mine?
4 Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
vainly with gifts would his favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart's adoration;
dearer to God are the prayers of the poor. Scripture: Luke 2:10-14 Used With Tune: MORNING STAR
Brightest and Best
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
Author: Theodore Baker; L. Monastier Meter: 7.6.7.6.6.7.6 Appears in 103 hymnals Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year C First Line: Lo, how a rose e'er blooming (D'un arbre séculaire) Lyrics: 1 Lo, how a rose, e'er blooming,
from tender stem hath sprung,
of Jesse's lineage coming
as seers of old have sung.
It came a blossom bright,
amid the cold of winter
when half spent was the night.
2 Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
the Rose I have in mind,
with Mary we behold it,
the virgin mother kind.
To show God's love aright
she bore for us a Saviour
when half-spent was the night.
French:
1 D'un arbre séculaire,
du vieux tronc d'Isaï,
durant l'hiver austère,
un frais rameau jaillit;
et, sur le sol durci,
dans la nuit calme et claire,
une rose a fleuri.
2 Dieu, par leur voix fervente,
de nombreux serviteurs,
à son peuple en attente,
promettait un Sauveur.
Il vient, suprême honneur,
chez une humble servante,
toute à son pur bonheur. Used With Tune: ES IST EIN' ROS Text Sources: German, 15th century
Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Author: Phillips Brooks Meter: 8.6.8.6.7.6.8.6 Appears in 858 hymnals Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year B; Christmas Day 1 Year C Lyrics: 1 O little town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by;
yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light;
the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.
2 For Christ is born of Mary;
and gathered all above,
while mortals sleep, the angels keep
their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together
proclaim the holy birth,
and praises sing to God the King,
and peace to all on earth.
3 How silently, how silently,
the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessed gift of heaven.
No ear may hear his coming;
but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still
the dear Christ enters in.
4 O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin, and enter in;
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel.
Used With Tune: ST LOUIS
O Little Town of Bethlehem
ODE TO JOY
Meter: 8.7.8.7 D Appears in 503 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827; Christopher Tambling Topics: Harvest Festival; Joy, Praise and Thanksgiving; Year A All Saints' Day; Year A Proper 14; Year B Advent 2; Year B Proper 1; Year B Proper 10; Years A, B, and C Christmas 2 Tune Key: F Major Incipit: 33455 43211 23322 Used With Text: Fill your hearts with joy and gladness
ODE TO JOY
GREENSLEEVES
Meter: 8.7.8.7 with refrain Appears in 175 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: John Stainer Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year B; Christmas Day 1 Year C Tune Sources: English melody, 16th century Tune Key: G Major Incipit: 13456 54271 23117 Used With Text: What Child is This
GREENSLEEVES
Joy to the World
Author: Isaac Watts Hymnal: Voices United #59 (1996) Meter: 8.6.8.6 with repeat Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year A; Christmas Day 1 Year B; Christmas Day 1 Year C First Line: Joy to the world! the Lord is come Lyrics: 1 Joy to the world! the Lord is come:
let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare him room,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven and nature sing,
and heaven, and heaven and nature sing.
2 Joy to the world! the Savior reigns:
let all their songs employ,
while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
3 No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground:
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.
4 He rules the earth with truth and grace,
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders, wonders of his love. Languages: English Tune Title: ANTIOCH
Joy to the World
Love Came Down at Christmas
Author: Christina G. Rossetti Hymnal: The New Century Hymnal #165 (1995) Meter: 6.7.6.7 Topics: Year A Christmas Day 1; Year B Christmas Day 1; Year C Christmas Day 1 Lyrics: 1 Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love divine;
Love was born at Christmas;
star and angels gave the sign.
2 Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, Love divine;
Worship we our Jesus,
but where is God's sacred sign?
3 Love shall be our token;
love be yours and love be mine;
Love to God and neighbor,
love for plea and gift and sign. Scripture: Luke 2:8-18 Languages: English Tune Title: WHITNEY
Love Came Down at Christmas
Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light
Author: Fred Pratt Green; John Troutbeck; Johann Rist Hymnal: The New Century Hymnal #140 (1995) Meter: 8.7.8.7.8.8.7.7 Topics: Year A Christmas Day 1; Year B Christmas Day 1; Year C Christmas Day 1 Lyrics: 1 Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light,
and usher in the morning;
O shepherds, shudder not in fright,
But hear the angel's warning.
"This Child, now weak in infancy,
our confidence and joy shall be,
the power of Satan breaking,
our peace eternal making."
2 Come, dearest child, into our hearts,
and leave your crib behind you!
Let this be where the new life starts
for all who seek and find you.
To you the honor, thanks, and praise,
for all your gifts this time of grace;
come, conquer and deliver this world,
and us, forever. Scripture: Luke 2:8-14 Languages: English Tune Title: ERMUNTRE DICH
Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light
Edmund H. Sears
1810 - 1876 Person Name: Edmund Hamilton Sears Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year C Author of "It Came upon the Midnight Clear" in Voices United Edmund Hamilton Sears was born in Berkshire [County], Massachusetts, in 1810; graduated at Union College, Schenectady, in 1834, and at the Theological School of Harvard University, in 1837. He became pastor of the Unitarian Society in Wayland, Mass., in 1838; removed to Lancaster in 1840; but on account of ill health was obliged to retire from the active duties of the ministry in 1847; since then, residing in Wayland, he devoted himself to literature. He has published several works.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872
=======================
Sears, Edmund Hamilton, D.D., son of Joseph Sears, was born at Sandisfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, April 6, 1810, and educated at Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., where he graduated in 1834; and at the Theological School at Cambridge. In 1838 he became pastor of the First Church (Unitarian) at Wayland, Massachusetts; then at Lancaster in the same State, in 1840; again at Wayland, in 1847; and finally at Weston, Massachusetts, in 1865. He died at Weston, Jan. 14, 1876. He published:—
(1) Regeneration, 1854; (2) Pictures of the Olden Time, 1857; (3) Athanasia, or Foregleams of Immortality, 1858, enlarged ed., 1872; (4) The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ; (5) Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life, 1875, in which his hymns are collected. Also co-editor of the Monthly Religious Magazine.
Of his hymns the following are in common use:—
1. Calm on the listening ear of night. Christmas. This hymn was first published in its original form, in the Boston Observer, 1834; afterwards, in the Christian Register, in 1835; subsequently it was emended by the author, and, as thus emended, was reprinted entire in the Monthly Magazine, vol. xxxv. Its use is extensive.
2. It came upon the midnight clear. Christmas.
"Rev. Dr. Morison writes to us, Sears's second Christmas hymn was sent to me as editor of the Christian Register, I think, in December, 1849. I was very much delighted with it, and before it came out in the Register, read it at a Christmas celebration of Dr. Lunt's Sunday School in Quincy. I always feel that, however poor my Christmas sermon may be, the reading and singing of this hymn are enough to make up for all deficiences.'"
3. Ho, ye that rest beneath the rock. Charitable Meetings on behalf of Children. Appeared in Longfellow and Johnson's Hymns of the Spirit, Boston, 1864, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines.
Dr. Sears's two Christmas hymns rank with the best on that holy season in the English language. Although a member of the Unitarian body, his views were rather Swedenborgian than Unitarian. He held always to the absolute Divinity of Christ. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.]
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Edmund H. Sears
Anonymous
Person Name: Unknown Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year A Arranger of "VOM HIMMEL HOCH" in Voices United In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.
Anonymous
Phillips Brooks
1835 - 1893 Topics: Christmas Day 1 Year B; Christmas Day 1 Year C Author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" in Voices United Brooks, Phillips, D.D., was born at Boston, Dec. 13, 1835, graduated at Harvard College 1855, and was ordained in 1859. Successively Rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, and Trinity Church, Boston, he became Bishop of Mass. in 1891, and died at Boston in Jan., 1893. His Carol, "O little town of Bethlehem," was written for his Sunday School in 1868, the author having spent Christmas, 1866, at Bethlehem. His hymn, "God hath sent His angels to the earth again," is dated 1877.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
Phillips Brooks
