O Little Town of Bethlehem

One of the highlights for me during the celebration of our Saviors birth is the singing of Christmas carols.  One of my favorites (I say that about all of them) is “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.  Below is a little background on this wonderful Christmas hymn.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.... Luke 2:4

This beloved Christmas carol is from the pen of one of America’s outstanding preachers of the past century, Phillips Brooks. In his day he was often referred to as the “Prince of the Pulpit.” His many published volumes of sermons have since become classics of American literature. He is said to have won the hearts of people with his preaching and writing as few clergymen have ever done.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem” was written in 1868, several years after Brooks had returned from a trip to the Holy Land. The experience of spending Christmas Eve in Bethlehem and worshipping in the Church of the Nativity, thought to be the place of Christ’s birth, made an indelible impression upon the young preacher. Three years later, while pastor at the Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was searching for a new carol for his children to sing in their Sunday School Christmas program. The still vivid memory of his Holy Land visit inspired Brooks to write this text.

Brooks gave a copy of the newly written carol to his organist and Sunday School superintendent, Lewis H. Redner, and asked him to compose a simple melody that children could sing easily. Redner was known throughout the Philadelphia area as a devoted Christian leader in Sunday School work as well as one deeply interested in church music. He struggled for a considerable time to contrive just the right tune for his pastor’s text. On the evening before the program was to be given, he suddenly awakened from his sleep and quickly composed the present melody. Redner always insisted that the tune was a gift from heaven. The carol was an immediate favorite with the children, as it has been with children and adults around the world to the present time. It was first published in 1874. Although Brooks wrote a number of other Christmas and Easter carols especially for children, this is the only one to survive the test of time.

Bibliography:

Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1982), 187.