 
Christmas Carols on Deck of BattleshipThe battleship Missouri will always hold a unique place in the history of the United States, for on her, at the close of World War II, the Japanese made their formal surrender. But about four months later (December 21, 1945) a very different scene was witnessed on her deck. That night more than one hundred members of the Choral Group of the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn sang Christmas carols in sub-freezing weather. Naturally the listening members of the appreciative crew recalled the experiences of the previous Christmas, when they were engaged in fighting World War II. Beneath a string of 500-watt bulbs the chorus sang into a microphone. Perhaps it was natural that they should begin with the familiar and beloved carol written by Bishop Phillip Brooks: “O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie!” Possibly some who listened made the words their heart prayer as the singers rendered the words: “O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today!” Other carols were rendered, and then the singers concluded with: “Silent night, holy night.” The songs of the glorious holiday season in a year that began in war and ended in peace reminded the men of home and family. One of the sailors remarked quietly to another: “I shall be home this Christmas for the first time in four years.” Christmastide Song of Blind SingersAt the Christmas season before the second World War a sale and entertainment were held in London under the auspices of the Greater London Fund for the Blind. Among the attractive features of the program during the afternoon and the evening was the rendering of Christmas carols by a company of blind singers. A London periodical, commenting on this part of the program, said that it was “especially impressive” when the chorus rendered the peculiarly appropriate hymn of Bishop Reginald Heber: “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, Dawn on our darkness and lend us Thine aid; Star of the East, the horizon adorning, Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.” Blind though they were, the singers were conscious of the fact that Christ was the “Light of the world.” This hymn was first published in 1811. Several other very popular hymns were written by the same author. Following his training at Oxford University, he became rector at Hodnet, and, later, Missionary Bishop of Calcutta, where this “man of learning and piety” lived only three years. During this short period, however, he had the great satisfaction of hearing this and another of his hymns (“The Son of God Goes Forth to War”) sung better than he “had ever heard them sung in a church before.” The blind singers of London chose well when they decided to sing the hymn of this consecrated man. Not Too Late to Hear the Christmas MusicNewspapers all over the United States on Christmas Day, 1945, carried pictures of returning troops from the scenes of war, as they arrived in the harbor of Los Angeles. The men were shown crowding the rails of the boats, and on their faces there was a wistful look. Happiness and disappointment were both registered. While they were privileged to see their native land on another Christmas Day, after their long and hard experiences in conflict, yet they were too late to join the Christmas circles in their homes. A group of singers, however, made the rounds of the various ships on a greeter boat, and welcomed the warrior lads by the singing of Christmas carols. Sweet was it to the men to hear the singers render the old carol: “O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem! Come and behold Him, born the King of angels!” When the chorus was reached many of the men on shipboard also sang or hummed the lines: “O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.” The origin of this great Christian hymn is obscure. This observation is made by Dr. Charles A. Boyd: “Here is another of the much loved hymns of the church which we owe to the old Latin hymn-writers. They wrote not for money or fame, but for the love of the writing, and for the praise of Christ.” A somewhat extended discussion of both hymn and tune is found in the work of Dr. James Moffatt, and at the close he says: “The conclusion seems to be that the hymn and tune came into use together, in the services of the Roman Church, during the first part of the eighteenth century; that they were in circulation in manuscript for some time before they appeared in print, but that nothing definite can as yet be stated as to the author of either words or music.” When a young high school student, whom I knew, attended the illumination of a community Christmas tree she heard a chorus of Welsh voices, at midnight on Christmas Eve, sing this carol. Several times before, very naturally, she had heard it in church and school. But this night she returned home full of enthusiasm, and said to her parents, “I never before heard anything so beautiful!” Perhaps the returning troops had just this feeling when they listened to this and other carols rendered in the Christmas season of 1945, as they were welcomed back with joyful song to the land for which they had victoriously fought. Carol the Children WantedTwo little girls jumped from their bed to listen to the choir of an English church as they were making their rounds at Christmastide singing carols, according to a local custom. They were, of course, singing the old favorites, as they had been doing for a few successive evenings, The first selection was rendered when, according to the one who narrated the incident in an English periodical (Mrs. Lyndon Hill), a bedroom window was lifted, and two little girls leaned out and asked them to sing the carol they most loved, “Away in a Manger.” Soon the Christmas callers were singing: “Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where He lay, The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.” “In all our singing it had never occurred to us to sing this seemingly childish carol,” said the one who related the story; “but we did sing it, and the beauty and simplicity of the words and tune struck me as never before, as the two little voices joined with us. They seemed to be the expression of all the wonder of God’s gift of the Christ child in the humility of His manger bed, and our singing took on new life as we caught a vision of the utter simplicity of the Christmas message.... And I never fail to receive inspiration from the mental picture of two little sleepy girls at a bedroom window singing ‘Away in a Manger.’” And what an especially appropriate prayer it must have been for the little girls when they closed the song with the words: “Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, Close by me forever, and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.” |
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