The Cyber Hymnal ‎#3906

3906. Long Years Ago o'er Bethlehem's Hills

1. Long years ago o’er Bethlehem’s hills
Was seen a wondrous thing;
As shepherds watched the sleeping flocks
They heard the angels sing.
The anthem rolled among the clouds
When earth was hushed and still;
Its notes proclaimed sweet peace on earth,
To all mankind good will.

Refrain
Glory to God in the highest,
The angels’ song resounds,
Glory to God in the highest!

2. That song is sung by rich and poor,
Where’er the Christ is known;
’Tis sung in words, and sung in deeds,
Which bind all hearts in one.
Angels are still the choristers,
But we the shepherds are,
To bear the message which they bring,
To those both near and far: [Refrain]

Text Information

• First Line: Long years ago o'er Bethlehem's hills
• Title: Long Years Ago o'er Bethlehem's Hills
• Author: Leigh R. Brew­er
• Refrain First Line: Glory to God in the highest
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: I wrote that hymn or Christ­mas car­ol—which I called The An­gels’ Song—just be­fore Christ­mas 1892. I had just re­ceived from a dear friend a gift of five thou­sand doll­ars for my miss­ion­a­ry work in Mon­ta­na; and I wrote this as a Christ­mas greet­ing and re­mem­brance. The last verse of the orig­in­al, which does not ap­pear in the hymn as here pub­lished, ex­pressed my gra­ti­tude and was as fol­lows: “God bless all those who help to give From burdens a release! God send his blessings on their home And fill their lives with peace!” Meeting Mr. C. Whit­ney Coombs some time after that, he asked for the car­ol that he might set it to mu­sic. I gave it to him, and he made two set­tings for it in mu­sic, one as a so­lo and the other as a quar­tet, and pub­lished it. The next year I asked him to set it to mu­sic that could be sung by Sun­day School child­ren. He did so, and I had it pub­lished in leaf­let form and had it sung in all our Sun­day schools at their Christ­mas fes­ti­val. I then wrote a chor­us for it which Mr. Coombs used near­ly as I wrote it. In the first edi­tion of the Meth­od­ist Hym­nal this hymn was er­ron­e­ous­ly at­trib­ut­ed to C. Whit­ney Coombs, grow­ing out of the fact that he was the first com­pos­er to set it to mu­sic. Nutter, p. 67. Al­ter­nate tune: WEINACHT, Karl P. Har­ring­ton, 1861-1953

Tune Information

• Name: FESTGESANG
• Composer: Alfred George Wathall (ca. 1905)
• Key: D♭ Major
• Copyright: Public Domain