“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

We often find ourselves humming a tune that seems to bring a little joy to the mundane. We don’t always know where it comes from, but for some reason it makes us feel good. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is one of those tunes.

Imagine this hymn being sung in 18th-century England. This was long before Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. England was still feeling the effects of the Puritans’ control of parliament in the 1600s, a period when the celebration of Christmas and all other “worldly festivals” had been abolished.1  It was a difficult time to make a joyful noise. The long faces and stone countenances of the pious looked down on joy as if it were some kind of sin. But a Methodist preacher, Charles Wesley, was dedicated to uplifting the human spirit. He was a light in the shadows of a time when disease and poverty were seen as punishments meted out by God. In the midst of these human struggles, Charles Wesley delivered his message of God’s mercy.

Charles Wesley was often criticized and, more than once, persecuted for reaching out to the underserved. He and his brother, John, preached at Newgate prison, a jail infamous for its deplorable conditions. Many of those incarcerated there were held for minor offenses, such as not being able to pay their bills or succumbing to petty theft to feed themselves. Imagine the Wesley brothers walking along the damp stone corridors of the prison and, rather than condemning the prisoners, offering them hope. They sang hymns. They taught that faith is for all, not just a select few. Charles Wesley lived by these words of Matthew Henry: “Everyone of us [has] a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify.”2

“Hark! The herald angels sing / Glory to the newborn King! / Peace on earth and mercy mild, / God and sinners reconciled!” This great song of hope must have lifted the hearts of all who heard it. As we hear it sung today, let us remember how powerful it’s message must have been to those who lived in a time of little hope and how much it promises to us: “Mild he lays his glory by, / Born that man no more may die.”3

1. See Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 More Hymn Stories (1985), 110.

2. In 101 More Hymn Stories, 14.

3. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Hymns, no. 209.