Upon his conversion, Charles Wesley immediately began writing hymns, each one packed with doctrine, all of them exhibiting strength and sensitivity, both beauty and theological brawn.  He wrote constantly, and even on horseback his mind was flooded with new songs.  He often stopped at houses along the road and ran in asking for “pen and ink.”

He wrote over 6,000 hymns during his life, and he didn’t like people tinkering with the words.  In one of his hymnals, he wrote: “Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honor to reprint many of our hymns.  Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are.  Therefore, I must beg of them these two favors: either to let them stand just as they are, to take things for better or worse, or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.”

But one man did the church a great favor by polishing up one of Charles’ best-loved hymns.  When Charles was 32, he wrote a Christmas hymn that began: “Hark, how all the welkin rings.”  The word “welkin” was an old English term for “the vault of heaven.”  It was Charles’ friend, evangelist George Whitefield, who, when he published this carol in his collection of hymns in 1753, changed the words to the now-beloved, “Hark!  The Herald Angels Sing.”

Bro. J.E.

It was Christmas Eve in the Austrian Alps.  At the newly constructed Church of St. Nicholas in Oberndorf, Father Joseph Mohr prepared for the midnight service.  He was distraught because the church organ was broken, ruining prospects for that evening’s carefully planned music.  But, Father Joseph was about to learn that our problems are God’s opportunities, that the Lord causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him.  It came to Father Joseph’s mind to write a new song, one that could be sung organless.  Hastily, he wrote the words and gave the text to his organist, Franz Gruber.  He explained the situation and asked Franz to compose a simple tune.

That night, December 24, 1818, “Silent Night” was sung for the first time as a duet accompanied by a guitar.

Shortly afterward, as Karl Mauracher came to repair the organ, he heard about the near disaster on Christmas Eve.  Acquiring a copy of the text and tune, he spread it throughout the Alpine region of Austria, referring to it as “Tiroler Volkslied.”

“Silent Night” was first published for congregational singing in 1838 in a German hymnbook.  It appeared in its current English form in a book of Sunday school songs in 1863.

Were it not for a broken organ, there would never have been a “Silent Night.” 


Bro. J.E.

The candy cane, developed by a candy maker in Indiana, was originally meant to be a meaningful symbol of Christmas.

The stick of pure white hard candy was a reminder of Jesus. White to symbolize His sinless nature, and hard to picture the solid foundation He gives to the church.

The candy is shaped in the form of a “J” to represent the precious name of Jesus.

The candy is stained with red stripes.  The three small stripes represent the scourging that Jesus received, by which we are healed.  The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross, so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

The candy cane was meant to be a meaningful symbol of Christmas, not just another Christmas decoration.

Thank God that we live in a nation where we can still worship our Lord in freedom.

Another Christmas funny:

A five-year-old boy loved to sing.  His favorite Christmas carol was “Away In A Manger.”  His parents decided that he had seen one too many nativity scenes when they heard him sing, “The cattle are lowing, the Baby’s a fake....”

Bro. J.E.