(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

It is well known that Christmas isn’t allowed to happen until a choirboy, preferably from King’s Cambridge, has sung “Once in Royal David’s City”:

(The little boy is fully aware of this, judging by his expression)


Once in royal David's city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior Holy.

And through all His wondrous childhood
He would honor and obey,
Love and watch the lowly Maiden,
In whose gentle arms He lay:
Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as He.

For He is our childhood's pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him; but in heaven,
Set at God's right hand on high;
Where like stars His children crowned
All in white shall wait around.

CF Alexander, tune (Irby) H Gauntlett.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

It is well known that Christmas isn’t allowed to happen until a choirboy, preferably from King’s Cambridge, has sung “Once in Royal David’s City”

This is a point of which BBC Radio 4 have been very keen to remind us over the last couple of weeks.

[tree_and_leaf]

I wish R4 wasn't so generally obsessed with trailers, but Merry Christmas nonetheless!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Trailers are an unfortunate reality of the modern broadcasting landscape, as are all the reminders about which service is being heard. There were once Radio 4 people who would rather have died than namechecked the station in the middle of a programme.

Merry Christmas, however, is a greeting of which one should never be exhausted at this time of year.

[juno-magic.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. Thank you.

Now Christmas can happen. *beams*

[tree_and_leaf]

*hugs*

Merry Christmas!

[caulkhead.livejournal.com]

It's cheating to listen to this before three o clock in the afternoon... but I did anyway.

I've very much enjoyed your Advent Calendar, and some of it has been very though-provoking, too. Thank you.

And Merry Christmas!

[tree_and_leaf]

Glad you have enjoyed it - Merry Christmas to you too.

[em-h.livejournal.com]

I find this song to be badly affected by subtle changes in language. Maybe it's just me and my inability to stop picking at things, but every time I sing "and He leads His children on" I sort of think of Jesus playing some kind of gigantic con game, which is problematic. Even more strongly, I find it hard not to giggle at all God's children "waiting around", dressed up in white, hoping something's going to happen soon ...

[tree_and_leaf]

badly affected by subtle changes in language

Well, yes, but I'm afraid that - due to childhood habituation probably - it's such a part of Christmas for me that I don't care. Though I've never considered 'leads his children on' in that light...

Mind you, I sympathise - I have difficulty with 'Away in a Manger', because 'the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes' strikes me as implausible at best and docetist at worst, but everyone else seems to dissolve into goo when it's mentioned...