"Who is He?"

 

“Who is He?” is another of my favorite hymns we sang in the churches on Tiree when I was a child. This reprint is from December 31, 2012.

Benjamin Russell Hanby is an American composer who also wrote “Up on the Housetop” and “Jolly Old St. Nicholas.” Still, I think of “Who is He” in connection with Scotland because that is where I first heard it.

“Who is He?”

The last of my favorite Scottish Christmas carols isn’t a Christmas carol at all. It starts out like one, but it is also a Good Friday and Easter hymn. In fact, we sang it year round.

Benjamin Russell Hanby wrote both the words and the music (tune, Lowliness) to “Who is He?” In the verses below, I’ve printed the chorus each time for easier reading.

Who is He, in yonder stall,

At whose feet the shepherds fall?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Who is He, in yonder cot,*

Bending to His toilsome lot?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Who is He, in deep distress,

Fasting in the wilderness?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Who is He that stands and weeps

At the grave where Lazarus sleeps?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Lo! at midnight, who is He

Prays in dark Gethsemane?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Who is He, in Calvary’s throes,

Asks for blessings on His foes?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Who is He that from the grave

Comes to heal and help and save?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.

 

Who is He that on yon throne

Rules the world of light alone?

‘Tis the Lord! O wondrous story!

‘Tis the Lord, the King of Glory!

At His feet we humbly fall;

Crown Him, crown Him Lord of all.**

The three children you see standing in front of the largest church on Tiree were sad when they had to leave the Isle, but they were also excited about returning to Edinburgh at the beginning of a new year.

In the same way, I’m sad to be leaving this series on Scottish Christmas carols, but I’m excited about writing new posts for 2013. Come along and see how I do.

Have a Christ-filled year.

__________

* “Cot” can mean either a narrow bed, such as one where a child might sleep, or a small house, such as one where a carpenter might live and work.

** As printed in The Church Hymnary, Revised Edition (Oxford University Press, 1927). This source identifies the tune as “Lowliness.” In other sources, the same tune is called “Who Is He.”

"Child in the Manger"

 

This week’s post is reprinted from December 24, 2012. Obviously, the photo was not taken during my childhood but is from a trip back to Tiree with my brothers in 2017. Daddy did preach at this church, however.

“Child in the Manger”

Another carol I learned in Scotland is “Child in the Manger,” written in Gaelic by Mary Macdonald and translated into English by Lachlan Macbean. It is sung to a Gaelic melody now called Bunessan.

This carol needs no introduction and no explanation. Here it is.

 

Child in the manger,

Infant of Mary;

Outcast and stranger,

Lord of all!

Child who inherits

All our trangressions,

All our demerits

On Him fall.

 

Once the most holy

Child of salvation

Gently and lowly

Lived below;

Now, as our glorious

Mightly Redeemer,

See Him victorious

O’er each foe.

 

Prophets foretold Him,

Infant of wonder;

Angels behold Him

On His throne;

Worthy our Savior

Of all their praises;

Happy forever

Are His own.*

 Have a blessed Christmas.

__________

* As printed in The Church Hymnary, Revised Edition (Oxford University Press, 1927).

"In the Bleak Midwinter"

 

During the rest of December, I will be reprinting posts from 2012. They talk about three Christmas carols that I learned when living in Scotland as a child. This first one is from December 17, 2012.

“In the Bleak Midwinter”

The year my family lived in Scotland, we spent our Christmas holiday on the Isle of Tiree, where my father earned a small stipend by preaching at the churches scattered around the island. Tiree was sparsely populated and the congregations were small, but the people were warm and friendly.

The picture shows the house we rented for our brief stay.

Before we even left for Tiree, I discovered several new Christmas carols. Three of them became favorites, and I’m going to spend the next few weeks talking about them.

Two carols are very strong theologically, so I’ll save them for the next two Mondays. I’ll start with the weakest of the three.

“In the Bleak Midwinter” has plenty of faults. First, the winter that Christina Rossetti wrote about resembles the ones she knew in England, not the kind they have in Bethlehem. Second, nobody knows what month Jesus was born in, but chances are it wasn’t during the winter. Still, something in the song spoke to me.

Maybe it was because it is so singable, or it could have been the melody (Cranham, by Gustav Holst). Then again, it could have been that, as a ten-year-old who had grown up in church, I was surprised to find a popular Christmas carol I didn’t know.

Or maybe it was because the Sunday School I often attended used the last verse as its offertory. And that is the best verse of the carol from a theological standpoint.

Here are all the words. Enjoy the first three stanzas, but focus on the fourth.

 

In the bleak midwinter,

Frosty winds made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

 

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him,

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak midwinter

A stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,

Jesus Christ.

 

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air—

But His mother only,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshiped the Beloved

With a kiss.

 

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd,

I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man,

I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him—

Give my heart.*

And your heart is enough.

__________

* As printed in The Church Hymnary, Revised Edition (Oxford University Press, 1927).

Finding Time for Writing

Roland is getting his right knee replaced this week, and the surgery and follow-up will have me spending a lot of time in waiting rooms during December. My very thoughtful husband is giving me an early Christmas present by hiring a cleaning lady to come in twice while he is recuperating, but I’ll still have to take over some of the day-to-day chores that Roland usually does. This means that I’ll have less time for writing than usual.

So how can I make the most of the time I do have? I’ll look for every spare moment and use it.

Fortunately, I have enough warning about those waiting room visits to make sure I have something to do while waiting. For example, although I’m not going to take my laptop to the hospital, I do plan to take the following:

• Kindle,
• My critique partner's current chapter and a red pen for comments and edits,
• Lined paper and black pen to work on the next chapter or two of my current work in progress, and
• Character list, extended outline (detailed notes for each chapter), and any research I need for the next few chapters of my work in progress.

·      I’ll still have to type up the critique and any new chapters when I get home, but most of the work will already have been done.

I’m also going to free up some writing time by using reprints for my blogs over the next three weeks.

Writing is in my genes, and I can’t not write. (Yes, the double negative is intentional.)

So I WILL find time for it.