Please see The Carols We Love: The "Story Behind the Story of Twenty-two Classic Christmas Carols, Daniel Partner, Barbour Publishing, Uhrichsville, OH, 2002.
David McCullough tells the story of this carol, "Phillips Brooks wrote "O Little town of Bethlehem" in 1865 after he visited the Holy Land and Bethlehem. He wrote it as a way to remind himself of his trip. A few years later he asked Lewis Redner to put the poem to music. Redner felt like a failure, until Christmas Eve, and the melody came to his mind like a revelation, waking him from his sleep."
This is a nostalgic view of the first Christmas, and then of subsequent Christmases. It concludes with a personal prayer, telling us how to find Christ today. Come to us! Abide with us!
4. O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!
David McCullough tells the story of this carol, "Phillips Brooks wrote "O Little town of Bethlehem" in 1865 after he visited the Holy Land and Bethlehem. He wrote it as a way to remind himself of his trip. A few years later he asked Lewis Redner to put the poem to music. Redner felt like a failure, until Christmas Eve, and the melody came to his mind like a revelation, waking him from his sleep."
This is a nostalgic view of the first Christmas, and then of subsequent Christmases. It concludes with a personal prayer, telling us how to find Christ today. Come to us! Abide with us!
4. O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell:
Oh, come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!
Here is the Nat King Cole version
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