Christmas Hymn of the Day

Go Tell It On the Mountain

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Go Tell It On the Mountain

Traditional Spiritual

O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!” (Isaiah 40:9, NLT)

Thought for the Day: … Yes, God sent us a Savior – that we might know His forgiveness. But not only that we might know it. God sent us a Savior so that we, who have been given the privilege of this knowledge, might go and share the good news of His forgiveness with all the world!

https://www.worthydevotions.com/christian-devotional/go-tell-it-on-the-mountain-2

Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere;

go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!

While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night,

behold throughout the heavens there shone a holy light.

The shepherds feared and trembled when lo! above the earth

rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.

Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born,

and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn.

Brightest and Best

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Brightest and Best

Words: Reginald Heber (1811)

Music: American folk hymn

Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:2 NLT)

Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,

Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid;

Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid

Cold on his cradle the dewdrops are shining,

Low lies his head with the beasts of the stall;

Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,

Maker and Monarch and Savior of all.

Shall we then yield Him, in costly devotion,

Odors of Edom, and offerings divine,

Gems of the mountain and pearls of the ocean,

Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?

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.

Away in a Manger (medley)

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Away in a Manger (medley)

(This arrangement is unusual in that the same words can be sung to three different tunes.)

Away in a Manger

Words: Stanzas 1 and 2 Anon., Stanza 3 John Tomas McFarland

Music: James R. Murray, 1887

Normandy Carol

Music: Anon.

Cradle Song

Music: William J. Kirkpatrick, 1895

She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. (Luke 2:7 NLT)

Thought for the Day: Regardless of its author, the beauty of this carol is the beauty of Christmas. It is simple. Christmas is not the gold or glitter, the wrappings or trappings. It is the story of God humbling Himself to become a baby, born in crude circumstances to a young woman in ancient Palestine. Sing this carol softly. It is what Christmas is all about.

William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen, Great Songs of Faith, 1995

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.

The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing; the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.

I love you, Lord Jesus! Look down from the sky and stay by my side until morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask you to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in your tender care, and fit us for heaven, to live with you there.

I Wonder as I Wander

Details: Category: Christmas Hymn of the Day; Hits: 16

I Wonder as I Wander

First stanza: Traditional Appalachian carol; stanzas 2 and 3 John Jacob Niles, 1933

The hymn has its origins in a song fragment collected by Niles on July 16, 1933.

While in the town of Murphy in Appalachian North Carolina, Niles attended a fundraising meeting held by evangelicals who had been ordered out of town by the police. In his unpublished autobiography, he wrote of hearing the song:

“A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached to the automobile. She began to sing. Her clothes were unbelievable dirty and ragged, and she, too, was unwashed. Her ash-blond hair hung down in long skeins. ... But, best of all, she was beautiful, and in her untutored way, she could sing. She smiled as she sang, smiled rather sadly, and sang only a single line of a song.”

The girl, named Annie Morgan, repeated the fragment seven times in exchange for a quarter per performance, and Niles left with "three lines of verse, a garbled fragment of melodic material—and a magnificent idea". (In various accounts of this story, Niles hears between one and three lines of the song.) Based on this fragment, Niles composed the version of "I Wonder as I Wander" that is known today, extending the melody to four lines and the lyrics to three stanzas. It was originally published in Songs of the Hill Folk in 1934.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Wonder_as_I_Wander

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,

How Jesus the Savior did come for to die

For poor ord'n'ry people like you and like I.

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus, all in a cow's stall,

Came wise men and farmers and shepherds and all,

And high from the heavens a star's light did fall;

The promise of the ages it then did recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,

A star in the sky or a bird on the wing,

Or all of God's angels in heav'n for to sing,

He surely could have had it, 'cause he was the king.

Behold That Star

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Behold That Star

Words and Music : Thomas W. Talley

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. (Matthew 2:9 NKJV)

This spiritual was written by Thomas Washington Talley (1870–1952), a professor of

chemistry at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Talley was also a gifted musician, and a pioneering ethnographer. In 1922 he published Negro Folk Rhymes, a collection of black traditional songs from rural Tennessee.

While director of the Mozart Society at Fisk, Talley was looking for a Christmas number that would capture the spirit of a jubilee song. He wrote, "As the son of an ex-slave, I knew a great many jubilee songs, but none pertained to Christmas." After searching far and wide, he realized he would have to create an original jubilee carol. "Behold That Star" was the result.

The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture notes that "this

successful publication was the first serious collection of folksongs from Tennessee, the

first compilation of black secular folksong, and the first to be assembled by a black

scholar."