Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

By Stephen Mitchell

by Charles Wesley (mostly)

Charles Wesley was the hymnist of the English Revival. He was born the eighteenth child and youngest son in a family of nineteen in the home of Samuel and Susannah Wesley. Father Samuel was rector of the poor and not too cultured town of Epworth. Charles studied at St. Peter’s College, Westminster, London; and in 1726 began his studies at Christ Church, Oxford. While there he helped form the Holy Club, of which George Whitefield and his brother John later became members. In 1735 Charles was ordained before he and John accepted the urgent invitation of General Oglethorpe to go with him as chaplain and teacher to his colony in Georgia in the New World. While in Georgia both Charles and John Wesley were witnessed to by the Moravian leader August Spangenberg who taught them that they needed a personal faith in Jesus Christ. Dissatisfied and ill in health, Charles returned to England the next year. We often hear about John Wesley’s salvation experience at Aldersgate on May 24, 1738. Charles had a similar experience, on May 21st, 1738, only three days prior to John’s experience. Charles’ greatest contribution to the Christian church was over six thousand hymns, four thousand of which were published. What John Wesley preached, Charles Wesley sang. Some of his greatest hymns are “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” “Jesus Lover of My Soul,” “Love Divine, All Love Excelling,” “O, For a Thousand Tongues,” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” For a while Charles traveled with John in his preaching tours. After 1756 he traveled little, not having the iron constitution of his brother and having a family of eight to provide for. From 1756 to 1771 Charles preached at Bristol, England, and from 1771 until his death in 1788, Charles preached in London. [Copied and emended from The Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church]

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 1739 in the collection Hymns and Sacred Poems. Its lyrics were substantially been written by Charles Wesley. Wesley had requested and received slow and solemn music for his lyrics, not the joyful tune we sing today. Moreover, Wesley’s original opening couplet is “Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings”.

The popular version is the result of alterations by various hands, notably by Wesley’s co-worker George Whitefield who changed the opening couplet to the familiar one, and by Felix Mendelssohn, whose melody was used for the lyrics. In 1840—a hundred years after the publication of Hymns and Sacred Poems—Mendelssohn composed a cantata to commemorate Johann Gutenberg’s invention of movable type printing, and it is music from this cantata, adapted by the English musician William H. Cummings to fit the lyrics of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, that we sing as the carol known today. [Copied from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hark!_The_Herald_Angels_Sing]

Hark, The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King:
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th’angelic hosts proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,
late in time behold him come,
offspring of the Virgin’s womb:
veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’incarnate Deity,
pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun 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.

“What John Wesley preached, Charles Wesley sang.” Charles composed this song, originally titled “Hymn for Christmas Day,” to express the identity and purpose of the Incarnation.

In its first verse, Wesley wrote that the angels sang of the glory of the newborn child. While the sacred text states that the angels spoke, not sang, we fully understand the urge to place song in the mouths of the angelic host. Singing praise comes so naturally to mankind it is easy to suppose it does to the angelic host as well. And Wesley began with the need to “Hark!” Pay attention. What the angels tell mankind is a very important message that needs to be listened to.

What was it that the angelic host proclaimed? Wesley collapsed several mighty themes into three short lines:

“Glory to the newborn King:
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”

What glory did this newborn king possess? It was not a glory that was apparent to human eyes. But it was an eternal radiant glory. In John 17:5, in Jesus’ high priestly prayer the night before He was crucified, Jesus said to His Heavenly Father: “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” This was a glory with which the angels were very familiar. After all, from the beginning the angels had been proclaiming “Holy! Holy! Holy! Is the Lord of Hosts,” and all along they had been including this person Who had entered human sight that night in Bethlehem.”

What about the concept of King? Looking back upon the completed text of the Bible, we know that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To honor His place as the newborn King, over a couple of months, God led Magi from Babylon to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem to kneel before this infant child. The Magi were the ruling party of the Parthian Kingdom and they chose who was to be the kingdom’s next king. They were, quite literally, king makers. And in the hundred years before Jesus’ birth, the Parthian Kingdom had twice dealt the Roman army its worse defeats of their history, totally annihilating more than one Roman Legion.

These are those who knelt before the infant child to worship because that child was truly ‘the newborn king.’

And ever since the Fall, peace has been missing from this earth and from the lives of its inhabitants. We have been at war with God, with others, and with ourselves. Yet the angels brought the message of peace from God the Father in that simple declaration of:

“On earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” This peace is suddenly available because, as the angels said, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

It is only in the saving ministry of the Lord that we can find peace. Peace with God, peace with others, and peace within ourselves. It comes because of God’s great mercy.

Charles Wesley was most likely thinking of 1Peter 1:3 when Peter wrote: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” God’s great mercy had arrived on this earth in the person of a tiny newborn baby. A newborn baby destined to bring reconciliation between God and man. In fact, later on Jesus was Himself described as the mercy seat, the place where God and man meet together for peace.

In Hebrews 9:5 it states about the Ark of the Covenant, “and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail.” What is significant is that the word translated “mercy seat” in Hebrews 9:5 is the same word translated “propitiation” in Romans 3:25. Listen to the words of Romans 3:24-25:

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;”

Do you see it? The Mercy Seat, the place where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled in the Old Testament when the High Priest entered once a year to make atonement for the sins of Israel, is now Jesus, the place where man’s sins are provided for to bring peace with God. God has reconciled mankind to Himself through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus. Listen to Paul in Colossians 1:20-22, writing about what the Father has done in Jesus:

“and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”

What a lot of truth in three short lines.

“Glory to the newborn King:
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”

Which is why Wesley thought it fitting to call upon all the nations of the earth to rejoice and joyfully proclaim:

Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with th’angelic hosts proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

But Wesley’s message, as full as it already was, was not over.

Wesley returned to the theme of the baby’s position as he began his second verse.

Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,

First, Jesus’ office of Messiah, Christ, Anointed, is mentioned as Wesley that Jesus was adored in the highest Heaven, the abode of the Throne of God. We love, because we are loved. The Apostle John wrote the “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Love is inherent within the nature of God. John wrote that “God is love. [1John 4:8]” That love has been, is, and will be, eternally expressed between the three Persons of the Trinity. Jesus told the Disciples, in John 15:9:

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.” Jesus, praying to the Father in John 17:26, said: “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” Jesus was adored by those that dwell in the highest Heaven.

But, not only is He adored, but He is the ‘Everlasting Lord.’ Surely Wesley had Isaiah 9:6 in mind as he wrote that line. “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” The everlasting Lord. Father of Eternity. Mighty God.

Though thousands of years passed before God gave the Redeemer, even though in Israel’s eyes the Messiah was long in coming, yet, it was in “the fullness of the time” that “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.”

As Wesley wrote:

late in time behold him come,
offspring of the Virgin’s womb:

Surely referring to Galatians 4:4. That long-looked-for seed of the woman had finally come. The offspring of a virgin’s womb.

But that was absolutely necessary because the Redeemer, the Savior, could never come of a human male. We are steeped in our sin. A Redeemer could have no sin. So God gave His own Son,

veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’incarnate Deity,

And we hear John’s statement:

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Which is why He is called “Immanuel, God with us.” And we hear God’s ancient cry from Isaiah 59:15-16:

“Now the LORD saw, And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him.”

God provided the Lamb, His own Son, to come to earth and take on humanity to provide the eternal sacrifice for sins. As it says in Hebrews 7:26-27:

“For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”

Because only God is without sin. Therefore, only God could provide a perfect sacrifice for sins, Jesus the Righteous Son of God. Truly God in the flesh. Immanuel, the Incarnate Deity. God in the Flesh.

And because He could be our only hope, as Wesley wrote, Jesus was

pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.

Jesus came willingly. He was not forced to do this. He came because He loved us and it pleased Him to come as our sacrifice. As Jesus Himself said in John 10:17-18:

“I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.” He was truly pleased to come and dwell with us and then freely offer Himself to God as our substitute. Jesus, our Immanuel.

And so, with Wesley, we also say

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

We honor and praise this Prince of Peace. We honor and praise this our Sun of Righteousness. The only One Who can take us out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son. The only One Who can give us of His righteousness while taking on our sin.

And with the knowledge that we have been transferred to the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son, we declare to the world:

Light and life to all he brings,
risen with healing in his wings.

Jesus, and Jesus alone, came to bring us light and to give us Life. Jesus told Thomas, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus came to bring healing from all of life’s ills. He is the only solution to the Problem of Evil we all struggle with. He heals us of all our diseases, both physical and spiritual. Only Jesus.

Wesley finished his great message in poetry with:

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.

He did not come as a conqueror. That is for later. He came as a wee babe, tender, vulnerable, gentle, meek, mild. He came to woo us to the Father. He laid aside His Glory before which no one can stand, veiled it in human flesh, and came and lived as one of us in order to give us these three things:

Victory over Death!

A resurrection to Glory!

A new birth to make us new creations in Christ!

What wonderful and mighty deeds to thrill each person’s heart. We no longer have to fear death. He has conquered it for us through His death.

We no longer have to fear eternity. We have been guaranteed resurrection to glory because of His resurrection. Because He lives, we live also.

We no longer have to stay in chains to Satan. We have been born into the family of God. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. We can have victory over sin, over Satan, over Death.

Which is why, as a company of the Redeemed, we say with our dear departed brother,

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King:”