Carol stories 1 - Hark the herald angels

The author of the carol known as “Hark the herald” is Charles Wesley, whose brother John was the founder of Methodism. Charles wrote over six thousand hymn texts, and “Hark the herald angels sing” is among his best and his most popular.
When Charles Wesley wrote the hymn in 1738, its first line was, “Hark how all the welkin rings, glory to the king of kings” the obscure work “welkin” meaning the heavens. It is said that Wesley conceived of the hymn while hearing the church bells on a Christmas morning.
The first line was later changed by George Whitfield to the one we know today. In Whitfield’s version the carols refer to the angels who heralded the birth of Jesus, and that gave us the enduring Christmas image of angels singing about a baby. In fact the Bible doesn’t say the Christmas angels sang at all, but only that they spoke their praises. And in the Bible the angels don’t sing glory to the baby. In truth the angels say “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests”.
The words of the carol are typical of Wesley’s aim to teach Christian doctrine through hymns. In just a few verses we are told why Christ came to earth: so that we would not have to face eternal death; so that He could raise us up with Him; so we could be know the new birth and become children of God. No carol has so much theology in such a few lines.

The tune we now use for Hark the Herald wasn’t written for the words, but was a tune composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1840 as part of a cantata written to honour Johann Gutenberg, who invented the printing press.