Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Hymn)

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Charles Wesley (1739)

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.

When I was a kid, I thought that it read “Hark, the Harold angel sings…”  I knew of no angels named “Harold”, which I thought was strange, but I sang the song without giving it much thought.  At some point in the last 20-some years, I did realize that it was “herald angels”.  That aspect of the song now makes more sense.  🙂  But, be that as it may, this is a great hymn.  Any time you get a hymn from Charles Wesley, you know that you are going to get some great truth and some good doctrine.  This hymn is no different.  Think about these lines:

“Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!” has got to be one of my favorite lines of any hymn.

“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail th’incarnate Deity, Pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.” -“God with us”, what a thought!

“Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die.” – This is exactly what He did!

I’m going to stop there because if I don’t, I will just end up repeating the whole song again.  What a great hymn.  I am going to start a campaign to make this hymn a “year-round” hymn.  It is too good and has too much truth in it to be relegated to one month a year.