O Little Town of Bethlehem

The year was 1862, and Phillips Brooks was pastor of the Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia. Brooks was a tall man, some records have his height at 6’8”, and he loved children. While never married, he kept toys in his office and it was not unusual to see this giant of a man sitting on the floor of his office playing with the children of parents who had come for counseling.

Brooks served Holy Trinity during the Civil War, and would preach as many as four funerals daily for young men who had sacrificed their lives in battle. By November of 1865 he was physically exhausted and emotionally spent. His church, knowing his great service to the community, fulfilled a life long dream by sending him on sabbatical to the Holy Land. On Christmas Eve Brooks was riding on horseback between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and shares this account:

“Before dark we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it, in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds. . . . Somewhere in those fields we rode through, the shepherds must have been. As we passed, the shepherds were still ‘keeping watch over their flocks,’ or leading them home to fold.” 

In  1868, with the impact of this trip still weighing heavily on his heart, a song was needed for the children’s Sunday School Christmas Eve program. Brooks penned the words to a poem and handed the verses to his organist Lewis Redner to add the music. Redner struggled with the melody, and the night before the program had still not been able to write one with which he was happy. He went to bed still struggling with finding the right music. In the middle of the night he suddenly heard a melody in his head, got up and penned the music we sing today. When he gave the completed carol to his pastor, he said, “I think it was a gift from heaven.”

That Christmas Eve the Children’s Sunday School sang for the first time a carol that has become a traditional favorite around the world, thanks to a visit to the Holy land by a weary pastor.

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight

For Christ is born of Mary
And gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love
O morning stars together
Proclaim the holy birth
And praises sing to God the King
And Peace to men on earth

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven
No ear may hear His coming
But in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive him still
The dear Christ enters in

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel