"Hark...the Welkin Rings"
Charles Wesley's Christmas Hymn Before George Whitefield's Edit
If you are in a group of people and state, “The Lord be with you,” someone will likely quickly say, “and also with you” or “and with thy spirit.” The same is true if you say “Hark” around this season of the church year. Someone will assume you mean, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” But this classic Christmas hymn did not start with that famous opening line when Charles Wesley penned it around 1739. Instead, the hymn's opening line was revised without his endorsement, much to Wesley’s chagrin or anger—depending on who you ask. Don’t worry; this post is not promoting that we go back to the original lyric. Instead, it seems that Wesley’s lyric portrays a more expansive meaning in how creation responded and should respond to the Savior’s birth.
The original lyric of the hymn reads: “Hark how all the welkin rings, ‘Glory to the King of Kings.’”
Why Use Welkin?
George Whitefield likely thought the antiquated word welkin was not accessible to the congregation who would sing this now-famous Christmas lyric. The word welkin referred to the heavens, firmament, or sky.1 No doubt when Wesley penned this lyric, he had in mind the same kind of thinking that produced the later hymn lyric, “All nature sings, and round me rings, the music of the spheres” from Maltbie Babcock’s hymn, “This Is My Father’s World.” The notion of “the music of the spheres” in Babcock’s lyric is the exact meaning present in the lyric “Hark how all the welkin rings, ‘Glory to the King of Kings.’“ Interestingly, the original lyric had “King of Kings” instead of “newborn King.” Wesley’s poetry has a more cosmically rich meaning than George Whitefield’s revision. It makes sense why he would feel the need to revise it on the one hand. On the other, Wesley’s original line is bolder in its claim that Jesus is Lord of all creation, and all of his creation rings forth that praise.
Why Does it Matter?
It matters because words matter. As I mentioned earlier, there is a waiting witness of words that are, at best, hidden in plain sight, or, at worst, removed altogether from our lexicon. Some of these hidden words need to be left hidden. But some have been forgotten or removed for reasons that are not justified. In this case, both can be true. It may well have been true that Hark the Herald Angels Sing was a needed edit in 1758 for this hymn to be sung and adopted in Whitefield’s hymnal where he placed it. It also may be that we may need to humble ourselves and acknowledge that we can learn from some of the older ways of thinking and crafting words. So regardless of how many more times you end up singing this Christmas hymn this season, do so with thanks, and praise for the God of Creation whose goodness and glory inspire men and women to try to capture, in lesser words, His Son, The Word, whose coming caused all the welkin and Angels to sing glory to the newborn King of Kings.
HARK how all the Welkin rings
“Glory to the King of Kings,
“Peace on Earth, and Mercy mild,
“GOD and Sinners reconcil’d!Joyful all ye Nations rise,
Join the Triumph of the Skies,
Universal Nature say
“CHRIST the LORD is born to Day!CHRIST, by highest Heav’n ador’d,
CHRIST, the Everlasting Lord,
Late in Time behold him come,
Offspring of a Virgin’s Womb.Veil’d in Flesh, the Godhead see,
Hail th’ Incarnate Deity!
Pleas’d as Man with Men t’ appear
JESUS, our Immanuel here!Hail the Heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and Life to All he brings,
Ris’n with Healing in his Wings.Mild he lays his Glory by,
Born—that Man no more may die,
Born—to raise the Sons of Earth,
Born—to give them Second Birth.Come, Desire of Nations, come,
Fix in Us thy humble Home,
Rise, the Woman’s Conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in Us the Serpent’s Head.Now display thy saving Pow’r,
Ruin’d Nature now restore,
Now in Mystic Union join
Thine to Ours, and Ours to Thine.Adam’s Likeness, LORD, efface,
Stamp thy Image in its Place,
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy Love.Let us Thee, tho’ lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the Inner Man:
O! to All Thyself impart,
Form’d in each Believing Heart.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/welkin#etymonline_v_25466
Interestingly, the TUNE for this enormously popular carol has a similar alteration history. The tune name is Mendelssohn, after its famous composer. But Mendelssohn did not compose it for the carol. He wrote it for little secular text celebrating a major anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of moveable-type printing. Where both Wesley and Whitefield have us sing in the first verse “Joyful all ye nations, rise”, the text set by Mendelssohn had “Gutenberg, der deutsche Mann!” After the celebration, Mendelssohn wrote to a friend that he thought the tune was a success and might find other uses. “But,” he said, “it would never do to sacred words.” Little did he know 🤗