Hymn of the Week: December 19, 2022
Angels from the Realms of Glory
Glory to God Hymn 143
Text: Stanza 1-3 James Montgomery 1816,
Stanza 4, Salisbury Hymn Book 1857
Music: Henry Thomas Smart 1867
Angels, from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o’er all the earth;
you, who sang creation’s story,
now proclaim Messiah’s birth:
come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn King!
Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
yonder shines the infant light:
come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king!
Sages, leave your contemplations;
brighter visions beam afar;
seek the great desire of nations;
you have seen his natal star:
come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king!
All creation, join in praising
God the Father, Spirit, Son,
evermore your voices raising
to the eternal Three in One:
come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king!
Hymn Texts: A Devotional
The more I read about and learn about hymns, carols, and folk songs, the more surprised I am at how free we have always been with text and tune over hundreds of years of usage.
Today I am mixing two experts in the field of hymnody and carol research. A lot of today’s information comes from an author I have used frequently, the Methodist and brilliant researcher of hymns, Dr. Michael Hawn. His insights are always so moving, but he comments on a fourth verse that is not used in our current hymnal. This fourth verse he talks about is from the Methodist hymnal and involves a drastic and intense reference to sinners and death. The other information comes from the book; The Carols of Christmas by Andrew Gant. I have edited the info as it can get a little long giving both scholars’ points of view. I am also including links if you want to read entire articles yourself. HERE
James Montgomery (1771-1854)
James followed in the footsteps of two poetic luminaries—Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. In many hymnals, he is well represented, third only to Watts and Wesley for British hymn writers before 1850, with six original hymns in The UM Hymnal.
American hymnologist Albert Bailey notes “One cannot call him a great poet, but he knew how to express with sincerity, fervor, simplicity, and beauty the emotions and aspirations of the common Christian.” But British hymnologist J.R. Watson states, “James Montgomery was a well-known poet, highly thought of by his contemporaries such as Shelley and Byron.”
Montgomery’s father was a minister, and his parents later served as missionaries to the West Indies. He remained in Yorkshire, and from age 6 was raised in a boy’s boarding school run by the Brethren of Fulneck. Montgomery later said, “There, whatever we did was done in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, whom we were taught to regard in the amiable and endearing light of a friend and brother.”
He began writing poetry at age 10, inspired by the hymns of the Moravians, the same group that influenced John Wesley. Though he flunked out of school at age 14, Montgomery found a job in 1792 at a radical weekly newspaper, the Sheffield Register.
He assumed the leadership of the paper when the previous editor, due to his politics, had to flee the country for fear of persecution. Montgomery then changed the name of the paper to the Sheffield Iris and served for 31 years as editor.
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” was first published on Christmas Eve 1816 in the Sheffield Iris. The hymn has a sense of urgency and excitement, magnified by the use of imperative verbs throughout, especially in the refrain: “Come and worship . . .
The original final stanza is usually omitted in hymnals:
Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes your sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains . . .
While such language seems harsh to modern ears and indeed seems to end the Christmas hymn on a bit of a “downer,” it completes a thoughtful progression from the first to the last stanzas. The Angel’s song (stanza one) leads to the Shepherds’ adoration (stanza two), to the Sages’ gifts (stanza three), and to Saints’ praise in heaven (stanza four), and finally, to the Sinners’ repentance on earth (stanza five).
Mr. Watson points out that the final original stanza, “appealing to the sinners, is highly appropriate because it echoes the Psalm for Christmas morning, Psalm 85, especially verse 10: ‘Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’”
The themes of justice and mercy as well as the image of broken chains are also appropriate in the context of the poet’s life. His newspaper denounced the social evils of his day, especially the slave trade. Montgomery was even jailed for his radical views: once for publishing a poem that celebrated the fall of the Bastille, and another time for denouncing the actions of the Sheffield police during a riot. He used his time in prison to write poetry.
Even though the original final stanza may seem to put a damper on unbridled Christmas joy, Montgomery reminds us that the Nativity was more than a sweet manger scene.
As many texts from Isaiah and the prophets remind us, the Incarnation was an event celebrating the liberation of oppressed peoples by a just and merciful God taking on human form. Let us celebrate, in the words of Montgomery, that God’s “justice now revokes [our] sentence” and that God’s “mercy . . . break[s] [our] chains”!
Dr. Hawn is a professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.
And now the music!
Angels from the Realms of Glory first saw the light of day in the Iris on Christmas Eve 1816. The path by which Montgomery’s poem became linked to the tune published three decades later as “Les anges dans nos campagnes is, as usual, complex and sometimes obscured by historical undergrowth.
Folks on this side of the pond know the hymn to go with the tune “Regent Square” while the Brits sing to the French tune listed above. Another carol that uses the French version is the text Angels We Have heard on High, from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Newcastle which appeared in 1860. The story of the Regent Square tune eventually wends its way to the south of London to a famous organist named Henry Smart. It is said he was quite the genius at congregational organ playing. In 1867 he edited the Songs and Hymns for Divine Worship. Among the tunes in this book are his very own Regent Square which is named for a wealthy bit of property in Regency Bloomsbury. While I could continue to go on for days about this hymn, I will leave you here and let you enjoy the youtube links I have attached.
You will hear Kings College Choir sing the French version with a fourth verse that is neither the one listed above or the Methodist one that Dr. Hawn talks about.
And here is the tune that we in the USA sing with a fourth verse that is neither the one Dr. Hawn talks about or the one in our hymnal.
If you’re scratching your head wondering how these hymns/carols we know and love come together, you are not alone. Celebrate all that these various versions offered to us. Gant, Andrew. The Carols of Christmas: A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs. Nelson Books. Nashville, TN. 2015.
