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.
Carol the Children Wanted
Two little girls jumped from their bed to listen to the choir of an English church as they were making their rounds at Christmastide singing carols, according to a local custom. They were, of course, singing the old favorites, as they had been doing for a few successive evenings, and they were tired. But this was their last call for the year.
The first selection was rendered when, according to the one who narrated the incident in an English periodical (Mrs. Lyndon Hill), a bedroom window was lifted, and two little girls leaned out and asked them to sing the carol they most loved, “Away in a Manger.” Soon the Christmas callers were singing:
“Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.”