O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
The very first audible sound ever heard on radio
airways happened on Christmas Eve, 1906. Reginald Fessenden--a 33 year
old university professor and former chief chemist for Thomas Edison, did
something thought impossible. Using
a new type of generator, he spoke into a microphone and began reading
from Luke's account of the birth of Christ. Shocked radio operators on ships
and astonished wireless owners, used to coded impulses over tiny speakers,
might have thought they were hearing the voice of an angel, just as
the shepherds almost 2000 years earlier. After finishing his
recitation, Fessenden picked up his violin and played, "O Holy Night."
It became the first song ever sent through the airwaves since the angels of
heaven rejoiced before the shepherds on that wonderful night on the
hills of Bethlehem....
Who wrote this song?
In 1847, a wine merchant from France, Placide
Cappeau, made a hobby of composing poetry for his own amusement.
Many people had read his poems, including his parish priest who
presided over the Catholic church where he sometimes attended.
One Christmas, the priest asked Placide if he might try to compose a poem
for the annual Christmas mass. Riding in a carriage to Paris, Placide
was reading the story of the shepherds of Bethlehem in Luke 2 and the words
to "O Holy Night" were written. Placide was impressed with his own
work, and thought it needed to be set to music. So he teamed up with a
Jewish friend and accomplished musician, Adolphe Adams, to set it to
music. The song was an immediate hit and was wholeheartedly accepted
by the church in France and quickly found its way into various Catholic
Christmas services. It was only when
it was learned that a Jew had written the musical score, the song was
denounced as "unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste
and total absence of the spirit of religion." Fessenden
then walked away from the Catholic church, yet the French people continued
to sing it and legend has it that on Christmas Eve in 1871, in the midst of
fierce fighting between the armies of Germany and France, a French soldier
jumped out of his trench. Both sides stared at this "mad man", but
boldly standing with his weapon at his side, he lifted his eyes to
heaven and sang the beginning of "O Holy Night". After completing all
3 verses, a German infantryman climbed out of his trench and begin singing
"From Heaven Above to Earth I Come." The story goes that the fighting
stopped for the next 24 hours.
A
decade later, an American writer named John Sullivan Dwight brought the song
to his country during the Civil War. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight
saw something in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of
Christ. In the third verse he saw, "Truly he taught us to love one
another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for
the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease."
Published in his magazine, Dwight's English translation of "O Holy Night"
quickly found favor in America, especially in the Northern
states.
Since the very first rendition at a small Catholic mass
in 1847, "O Holy Night" has been sung millions of times in churches in every
corner of the world and has become one of the most recorded and played
spiritual songs.
Requested by a forgotten parish priest, "O Holy Night"
was destined for an amazing history:
Written by a wine-merchant poet who would later split from the church;Given its music by a Jew who did not view Jesus as the son of God;Stopping a war for a day;Rallying the conscience of a nation over slavery;And becoming the very first music to ever be broadcast over the airwaves....by other than an angelic host.
MARY E.
ADAMS