Angels are prominent in the biblical accounts of Jesus’ birth. It was angels who informed Mary and then Joseph that the Messiah was to be born, conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit in the womb of that young teenage virgin. And we read of an angelic host that exploded into the night sky to announce to the Bethlehem shepherds that a Savior had been born. Those heavenly beings were praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!” Many of us have watched with joy (and with cell phone cameras) as we took videos of our children and grandchildren who had the role of angels in the Christmas nativity play at church.
The Bible records numerous occasions when angels have appeared to human beings at key moments in the history of redemption. And artists over the centuries have tried to capture those moments in their paintings and sculptures. So have film makers, including television movies and programs. Of course, those have all fallen far short of the biblical accounts of the real thing. The real angels are neither cute little cherubs with wings and harps nor pleasant friends who look like your nice next door neighbor. No, the real things are indescribably awesome beings who reflect the glory of God. When they have appeared to mortals, human beings shrink in terror in the realization that they are in the presence of the holiness of God.
Some of our Christmas hymns point us to those heavenly messengers. Think of such carols as “Angels We have Heard on High,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “The First Noel, the Angel Did Say,” and “Angels from the Realms of Glory.” That last one is the focus our study this time. It is one of the 400 hymns written by the eloquent Scottish poet James Montgomery (1771-1854). His name has a familiar ring to it, bringing to mind the great 20th century Philadelphia pastor, preacher and author James Montgomery Boice (not related to the hymn writer). Montgomery’s excellent hymns rank alongside those of Watts, Wesley, Newton, and Doddridge as the finest in the English language. Most hymnals today will include a considerable number of his hymns. Among them are “According to Thy Gracious Word,” “Go to Dark Gethsemane,” “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” “In the Hour of Trial,” “Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire,” and “Stand Up and Bless the Lord.”
James Montgomery was born November 4, 1771 in Ayrshire, Scotland where his father was a Moravian minister. At the age of five, his family moved to a Moravian settlement in Ireland in County Antrim. In 1783 his parents left him there in a boarding school as they travelled to the West Indies as missionaries. A few years later he was sent off to begin seminary training at Fulneck Seminary, Yorkshire, where he made a public profession of faith as he united with the Moravian Church. For a time during his teen years, his faith had faltered, but he grew strong in his commitment to Christ, which lasted throughout the rest of his life. He never saw his parents again, since they died when he was twelve, his father buried in Barbados and his mother on Tobago.
Secular poetry and fiction were banned at Fulneck, but the lad found means of borrowing such literature and was fascinated by the works of Burns and Milton. He soon began to try his hand at writing poetry. His scholastic work was insufficient to sustain his enrollment and he was apprenticed to a bake shop in Muirfield. It was not suited for him, and he left after 18 months to similar work nearby that was also unsatisfactory. He traveled to London, hoping to find a publisher for his poetry. When those efforts failed, he found employment with the Sheffield Register. The owner fled England to avoid political prosecution, and Montgomery took it over, continuing to edit it under the name Sheffield Iris for 32 years.
It was not a safe time to criticize the British government. During the next two years he was imprisoned twice in the Castle of York. The first was for six months for reporting on a riot in Sheffield, and the second was for three months for commemorating the Fall of the Bastille with a poem another had written. Montgomery was passionate about humanitarian causes such as lotteries and the abolition of slavery, and was concerned about the exploitation of child chimney sweeps. He was also a strong supporter of world missions and evangelism, for which the Moravians had become known. These themes are prominent in his hymns and have contributed to their lasting popularity.
As the years passed, he became the most respected leader in Sheffield, earning the almost universal esteem of the citizens of Sheffield where his writings were eagerly read by its citizens. Early on Christmas Eve, 1816, James, 45, opened his Bible to Luke 2, and was deeply impressed by verse 13, of the angelic host. Pondering the story of the heralding angels, he took his pen and started writing. By the end of the day, his new Christmas poem was being read in the pages of his newspaper. It was later set to music and was first sung on Christmas Day, 1821.
He never married and died quietly in his sleep, a day after he had written his last hymn, April 30, 1854 at the age of 83, at his home in Sheffield where his career and works accorded him the honor of a public funeral in that city. In his memory, a statue was erected in the Sheffield cemetery, a stained glass window was installed in the parish church, and a public hall was named after him.
His poem, “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” which is sung as a Christmas carol, was first published in the Sheffield Iris in 1816 and began to be sung widely in churches sometime after 1825. Montgomery’s success was boosted by the Reverend James Cotterill who preached at St Paul’s Chapel (now demolished), which was once part of Sheffield Cathedral. With Montgomery’s help, Cotterill republished his “Selection of Psalms and Hymns Adapted to the Services of the Church of England” with the addition of some of Montgomery’s 400 hymns. British hymnologist J. R. Watson states, “James Montgomery was a well known poet, highly thought of by his contemporaries such as Shelley and Byron.”
Of the original seven stanzas, most hymnals today only include the first four. Some have objected to the mood of judgment in stanza five, but it is an important part of the message. The reason angels sang with such joy is that the work of the Redeemer makes it possible for sinners who turn to Jesus in true repentance to find that their sentence has been revoked as mercy has granted them forgiveness and the privilege of adoption as sons and daughters of God because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. As we examine the lyrics, note that the song is not cast as a prayer, but as instructions directed to different “players” in the narrative.
In stanza 1, we address the angels who came from the glory of the presence of God. These are the same ones who sang of creation as the “morning stars” referred to in Job 38:4-7. Here their joyful assignment was to proclaim to all the earth that the promised Messiah had been born.
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.
In stanza 2, we address the lowly shepherds who first saw and heard the news on that blessed morning. They were keeping watch over their flock on the night that the divine Good Shepherd, “God with us,” was born as an infant who would go to the cross 33 years later to save His flock.
Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light:
In stanza 3, we address the sages, the wise men from the east. Commentators propose that these were the descendants of those in Persia who had known Daniel and his prophecies. It was time to leave their “contemplations” and travel from their nation to greet “the great Desire of nations.”
Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
Ye have seen His natal star.
In stanza 4, we address the saints. There are two possibilities here. One is those souls now under the altar in heaven crying out in Revelation 6:9 for the day of God’s vindication of their martyrdom. The other is the saints gathered here in worship today, longing for His second coming.
Saints, before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear;
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear.
In stanza 5, we address sinners who have turned to the Lord in repentance. No longer is there the threat of doom as they face sentencing for their guilt. Instead, having turned to the Lord in repentance, there is joy in the knowledge that their sins have been forgiven and their chains broken.
Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.
In stanza 6, we address one another with the expectation of future praise. The Infant whom we view by faith in a manger will one day appear in glory. All the nations will acknowledge Him as Lord as every knee bows before Him (Philippians 2:9-11). What a sight and sound that will be!
Though an Infant now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father’s throne,
Gather all the nations to Him;
Every knee shall then bow down:
In stanza 7, we address all creation in a concluding doxology that points to the Holy Trinity: Father, Spirit, and Son. How we look forward to the day when we will be joining our voices with those of all creation, praising Him.
All creation, join in praising
God, the Father, Spirit, Son,
Evermore your voices raising
To th’eternal Three in One.
In the refrain, each stanza concludes with the invitation, or better yet, the command to “come and worship” this Christ, this “newborn king.”
Come and worship, come and worship,Worship Christ, the newborn king.
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” was initially sung five years after its first publication. The congregation on that occasion may have sung it to a tune called LEWES that was composed about 1774 by John Randall. Henry Smart (1813-1879) provided the most familiar tune. He was the son of a music publisher and the nephew of the greatest British conductor of his generation. He served as organist at a number of British churches and composed a wide variety of music, including an oratorio and an opera.
Smart’s eyesight started to fail when he was 18, and he had gone completely blind by age 52. But being blind did not hinder his career as an organist because of his skill at improvisation. His daughter wrote the notation for all his subsequent compositions. Fascinated by organs as a youth, Smart designed organs for important places such as St. Andrew Hall in Glasgow and the Town Hall in Leeds. He composed an opera, oratorios, part-songs, some instrumental music, and many hymn tunes, as well as a large number of works for organ and choir. He edited the “Choralebook” (1858), the English Presbyterian “Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship” (1867), and the Scottish “Presbyterian Hymnal” (1875). Some of his hymn tunes were first published in the Anglican “Hymns Ancient and Modern “(1861). The name for the REGENT SQUARE tune is reportedly an association with the publisher of the first hymnal to contain it, James Hamilton, who was the minister of the Regent Square Church situated in London.
Here is a link to the congregational singing of the carol at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church.