O little town of Bethlehem

In thinking primarily of Bethlehem, when singing this hymn we may also spare a thought for Boston; the little town in Massachusetts USA, that is, which was the birthplace and final home of its author Phillips Brooks. But it was probably from Philadelphia that the young minister set out for Bethlehem, then part of the (Muslim) Ottoman Empire, at Christmas 1865 or 1866. The visit prompted the writing of these stzs and more, for Holy Trinity Church Sunday School, on his return. At least, we know of the journey, and that by 27 Dec 1868 the words were sung from a printed leaflet to a tune by Lewis H Redner, organist and Sunday School superintendent. They were published in William Reed Huntington’s The Church Porch (New York, 1874), and in Britain in W Garrett Horder’s The Treasury of Hymns (1896). Its inclusion in 3 major hymnals between 1899 and 1906 helped to establish it as one of several American ‘carols’ which have been readily adopted on this side of the Atlantic and indeed worldwide. One stz now normally omitted (except in EH and its 1986 successor) is the original 4th, beginning ‘Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child …’ and ends ‘the dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more’. It may be too sentimental for today but was important to the hymn’s theme and structure as the author saw it; beneath the tenderness is a searching point which takes us well beyond the special season. The whole hymn may also be a poignant reminder of the hopes, fears and conflicts in 21st-c Bethlehem; it was the scene of bitter fighting, for example, in 2002.

Even with the remaining 4 stzs, the ‘received text’ varies; what seems the original American version begins stz 2, ‘O morning stars together’, and contrasts with a British one which reverses the two halves of the stz, as here. There are no other significant changes; those who defend the pronouns ‘thee/thy’ on the grounds of reverence must clearly dispense with them when addressing a town. The carefully crafted internal rhymes in each 3rd and 7th line are also used by Margaret Clarkson in her own ‘Bethlehem’ text, 383. This hymn has many affinities with 362; unlike the original of the former hymn (and 383), Bishop Brooks has no hesitation in naming ‘sin’ in stzs 3 and 4 as the problem to be overcome—by the Christ whose arrival we celebrate. Unlike many hymns relying on the account in Luke 2, it does not mention shepherds; more explicitly than 350, it alludes to the ‘morning stars’ of Job 38:7. Worship Song placed the hymn in its section ‘For the Young’, while the later EH assigned it (with just two others) to ‘Christmas Eve’. In the Standard A&M (1916) it is the sole entry for Christmas in the attached ‘2nd Supplement’.

In that hymnal, still in use in places nearly 90 years on, it goes to H Walford Davies’ WENGEN, which survived as a ‘2nd tune’ in the 1950 book. FOREST GREEN was Vaughan Williams’ choice of tune for EH which did much towards the ‘Englishing’ of a transatlantic text. He noted the folksong ‘The Ploughboy’s/Ploughman’s Dream’ at Forest Green near Ockley in rural Surrey, and thus further enriched the church with a lilting ‘secular’ melody of a kind often associated with narrative ballads. Some singers retain the valuable tradition of starting the 8th line with a longer note (giving two minims to the 12th full bar) as when originally printed by Vaughan Williams. This tune has since been used for other, newer texts; the attractive alternative, CHRISTMAS CAROL, is found at 383.

b Boston, Mass, USA 1835, d Boston, 1893. Boston Lat Sch; Harvard Univ; Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained in the Protestant Episcopal Ch in 1859, and began his ministry in the Ch of the Advent, Philadelphia, Penns. In 1862 he was appointed rector of Holy Trinity Ch in the same city. He sprang to instant fame for a single prayer spoken during a commemoration of ex-Harvard men killed in the civil war. He moved to Boston, Mass, as rector of another Trinity Ch in 1868; while there he gave his Lectures on Preaching in 1887 at the Divinity School of Yale Coll. In their published form these enjoyed international success, famously enlarging on his description of preaching as ‘truth through personality’. His 8th and last lecture pointed to the ‘power which lies at the centre of all success in preaching…The power is the value of the human soul, felt by the preacher and inspiring all his work…the intense value which the Saviour always set upon the souls for which he lived and died…May the souls of men be always more precious to you as you come always nearer to Christ’ (cf the notes on C H Spurgeon). Brooks was ‘revered’ (her own word) by Fanny Crosby (F van Alstyne, qv). Oxford Univ awarded him its DD in 1885, and in 1891 he became Bishop of Massachusetts. This appointment was soon terminated by his death 2 years later, not yet 60, news of which was received with great public grief. He was widely regarded as one of N America’s finest preachers; many of his sermons were published and are still available for study. Bp Brooks may be seen as a moderate liberal; in addition to his statue in front of Boston’s Holy Trinity Ch and other monuments in the USA, St Margaret’s Westminster, next to the Abbey, has a memorial window in which he features. Alexander Allen published his Life and Letters in 1900 and Memories of his Life in 1908. No.368.