Not Too Late to Hear the Christmas Music
Newspapers all over the United States on Christmas Day, 1945, carried pictures of returning troops from the scenes of war, as they arrived in the harbor of Los Angeles. The men were shown crowding the rails of the boats, and on their faces there was a wistful look. Happiness and disappointment were both registered. While they were privileged to see their native land on another Christmas Day, after their long and hard experiences in conflict, yet they were too late to join the Christmas circles in their homes.
A group of singers, however, made the rounds of the various ships on a greeter boat, and welcomed the warrior lads by the singing of Christmas carols. Sweet was it to the men to hear the singers render the old carol:
“O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!
Come and behold Him, born the King of angels!”
When the chorus was reached many of the men on shipboard also sang or hummed the lines:
“O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him
O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.”
The origin of this great Christian hymn is obscure. This observation is made by Dr. Charles A. Boyd: “Here is another of the much loved hymns of the church which we owe to the old Latin hymn-writers. They wrote not for money or fame, but for the love of the writing, and for the praise of Christ.” A somewhat extended discussion of both hymn and tune is found in the work of Dr. James Moffatt, and at the close he says: “The conclusion seems to be that the hymn and tune came into use together, in the services of the Roman Church, during the first part of the eighteenth century; that they were in circulation in manuscript for some time before they appeared in print, but that nothing definite can as yet be stated as to the author of either words or music.”
When a young high school student, whom I knew, attended the illumination of a community Christmas tree she heard a chorus of Welsh voices, at midnight on Christmas Eve, sing this carol. Several times before, very naturally, she had heard it in church and school. But this night she returned home full of enthusiasm, and said to her parents, “I never before heard anything so beautiful!” Perhaps the returning troops had just this feeling when they listened to this and other carols rendered in the Christmas season of 1945, as they were welcomed back with joyful song to the land for which they had victoriously fought.