Artists and movie makers and greeting card makers have created many pictures of Mary and Joseph with the baby. These scenes are beautiful and sentimental, and powerful in the way they have stuck in our minds. In contrast to those imaginary depictions, the real scene as described in the Bible is amazingly sparse in details. The focus in scripture is on what happened rather the visual sight. And so, in many ways, the best Christmas carols are those which give only meager attention to how it all looked, and just focus on the mystery, the marvel, the majesty of the incarnation when the Son of God took on a true human body and sinless human nature in order to carry our sins to the cross.
One of the most simple carols, then, is “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child.” It was written in 1919 by Joseph Simpson Cook (1859-1933). Born in Durham County, England, he trained for Methodist ministry in Montreal’s Wesleyan Theological College and McGill University before serving pastorates in quite a large number of churches, usually for just two to three years in each church. He later transferred to the United Church of Canada. He contributed articles and verses to many church-connected magazines. His best-known hymn, “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child Lowly in a Manger” won first prize in a contest of the Methodist weekly “Christian Guardian.”
The text has been wed to the tune TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, a melody first found in the 1582 Finnish song collection “Piae Cantiones.” The title means “Eastertime has come,” a 13th century secular spring carol that has nothing to do with any biblical themes, and was not intended for church use. In 1853, English hymnwriter and Oxford Movement (Anglo-Catholicism) scholar John Mason Neale wrote lyrics about “Good King Wencenslas” which have now become common in people’s minds when they hear this tune. The text of Neale’s carol bears no resemblance to the original words of TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM which are as follows.
The time for flowers now is come, for the flowers rise up.
Spring in all things, the likeness/copy of nature.
This which ice had attacked, has recovered warmth.
We all see this weeping, by great work.
“Good King Wenceslas” is a Christmas carol that tells a story of a Bohemian king (modern-day Czech Republic). According to the legend, on a cold and snowy night, the good King Wenceslas is enjoying the Feast of Saint Stephen (December 26, the Second Day of Christmas). He looks out over his land, illuminated by moonlight, and notices a poor man gathering firewood for his home. He asks a page if he knows who the man is. The page responds that the man lives a long distance from here, at the base of a mountain in the distance. King Wenceslas immediately wishes to share the warmth of his own home and the food of the holiday with him. He orders the servants of his household to bring him food and firewood, that he may bring them into the poor man’s home.
Thus begins the King’s journey of goodwill through the wintery night with one of his servants. Off they go together, carrying a heavy load and trudging through heavy snowfall and cold wind. The page soon tells the King, “Sire, I cannot go any further.” The King tells his page to simply follow boldly in his footsteps. Legend says that as the page walks in the King’s footsteps, he is pleasantly warmed. King Wenceslas and his page reach the poor man’s home, bringing him plenty of firewood and a wonderful dinner they all share together. The moral of the story is that those who bless the poor shall themselves find blessing as well. The legend is based on the life of the Saint Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia (907-935), who was not a king but a duke.
He was considered a martyr and saint immediately after his death, when a cult of Wenceslas rose up in Bohemia and in England. A political decision of his angered the nobles, who conspired to have his brother, Boleslav, murder him at the church door as he arrived for mass. Within a few decades of Wenceslas’s assasination, four biographies of him were in circulation. These hagiographies had a powerful influence on the High Middle Ages conceptualization of the “rex justus,” or “righteous king.” This would refer to a king whose power stems mainly from his great piety, as well as from his princely vigor. A statue of Saint Wenceslas on horseback can be found at the Wenceslas Square in Prague.
Here is the text of that song which many of us will remember singing in school.
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen,
when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
when a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.
Hither, page, and stand by me. If thou know it telling.
yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,
right against the forest fence by Saint Agnes fountain.
Bring me flesh, and bring me wine. Bring me pine logs hither.
Thou and I will see him dine when we bear the thither.
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together
through the rude wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.
Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger.
Fails my heart, I know not how. I can go no longer.
Mark my footsteps my good page, tread thou in them boldly.
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage freeze thy blood less coldly.
In his master’s step he trod, where the snow lay dented.
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.
Returning now to the text of Cook’s carol about gentle Mary, we sing this simple story of the nativity. As we do so, we should remember Mary’s “Magnificat” as she sang (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit), “all nations will call me blessed.” Protestants need to keep this in balance. Gentle Mary was not chosen to bear the Messiah because of anything in her or about her. This honor was given to her by grace, which means that it was God’s sovereign choice, not because of anything meritorious in her. In her “Magnificat” she sang, “My soul does magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Just like us, she was a sinner who needed a Savior.
And while she was not a saint in the Roman Catholic sense, not someone to whom we should pray (since 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that “there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus”), yet she is to be accorded special honor. It is right and proper that in our hymnody, we should acknowledge that. And we do that in this sweet hymn. Cook’s text is so very simple, many of the words have only one syllable. It is a hymn understandable by a child at the same that it causes the mature to pause in wonder.
Stanza 1 tells us of this “gentle” virgin mother, cherishing her baby, laying Him in a manger. We note His sinlessness in that He was “undefiled,” since Joseph was not His father. He did not inherit the sinful nature and original sin in which all other humanity has been born. Though the world, and even His own, did not know Him, He was to them a stranger. But to all “who have found His favor,” He is that longed-for and much-needed Savior.
Gentle Mary laid her Child, Lowly in a manger;
There He lay, the undefiled, To the world a stranger:
Such a Babe in such a place, Can He be the Savior?
Ask the saved of all the race Who have found His favor.
Stanza 2 tells us about all who celebrated that birth: angels, wise men, shepherds, hills and plains, and even stars! What a thrill it must have been for all of them. Angels had known Him in heaven from the time of their creation. Wise men had known of Him possibly from the lingering prophecies in their land when Daniel lived there. The Psalms tell us mountains and hills praise their Creator, and Job tells us of morning stars singing together, which they certainly did here as they shone brightly. And how amazing to think of those shepherds standing there, pointing down to the tiny infant and saying to one another, “That’s God!!!”
Angels sang about His birth; Wise men sought and found Him;
Heaven’s star shone brightly forth, Glory all around Him:
Shepherds saw the wondrous sight, Heard the angels singing;
All the plains were lit that night, All the hills were ringing.
Stanza 3 takes us back to the words of the first stanza, but with a wonderful transition. He is no longer a stranger. He is no longer known just by His humble birth. Now He is recognized as the Son of God and acclaimed as “the King of glory!”
Gentle Mary laid her Child Lowly in a manger;
He is still the undefiled, But no more a stranger:
Son of God, of humble birth, Beautiful the story;
Praise His name in all the earth, Hail the King of glory!
Here is a recording of this lovely nativity carol.