Christmas History: Angels From the Realms of Glory

Lyrics:
Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o'er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation's story,
Now proclaim Messiah's birth:
Come and worship,
Come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King!

Shepherds, in the fields abiding,
Watching o'er your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing,
Yonder shines the infant Light;
Come and worship,
Come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King!

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great desire of nations,
Ye have seen His natal star;
Come and worship,
Come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King!

Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear:
Come and worship,
Come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King!

This last verse is usually omitted:
Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes your sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains . . .

Those first three verses... so very scriptural aren't they?   Calling us to action, to see this baby Jesus.  To see him as King, to realize that he is our hearts desire.  That fourth verse showing us as we should be, bowing to the King of Kings, that hope that we hold dear at Christmas of Christ's return and then that last verse calling us to action, helping us to break chains that bind us.   We really need to see these words don't we?   To sing them in worship to our Saviour Jesus Christ.

 History:
Written by Scottish poet James Montgomery.   It is one of 400 hymns that he wrote.   James Montgomery's parents were missionaries with the Moravian church.    Through their work, his parents lost their lives.  Through the Moravian church he was able to get at least part of an education at Fulneck Seminary in Yorkshire, but his love of poetry made that a poor fit.   Eventually he became owner of a newspaper.

This Christmas Carol was originally written in 1816,  As many young people do, he struggled with understanding the faith of his parents and started to dig into the bible a bit more, as he pondered the reason why their faith was so important they would die to share it.  He was inspired by the words in Luke 2 where we read "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”"
He published it in his paper and by 1825 it was being sung in churches. 


In North America, the tune this carol is sung to, is Regent Square written by Henry Smart, but in the United Kingdom it is sung to a different tune "Iris" which is a French tune that Angels We have Heard on High is also sung too.   Hear the differences here.

Resources:
Hymn Story.  Discover the Word. History of Hymns. Wiki.    UK Carols. 

Christmas Hymns Unit Study.