Let’s read some beautiful words:
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 field abiding, Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing; Yonder shines the Infant Light.
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.
James Montgomery, born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland to Irish parents on November 4, 1771, wrote these words in 1816.
His father was a Moravian minister. When James was 4 years old, the family was transferred to a Moravian settlement near Ballymena, north of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Wishing his son to follow in his calling, James at age 7, was sent to school in the Moravian center at Fulneck, near Leeds, Yorkshire. While he was there, his parents went as missionaries to the West Indies where they both died.
At school, James’ poetic talents were not appreciated because they interfered with his studies. He was writing verse at age 10; at age 15 he planned an historic poem about Alfred the Great, and had written a metrical version of Psalm 113.
To cure him of his preoccupation with poetry, the school expelled him and apprenticed him to a baker. He ran away in 1787. Eventually, he moved to Sheffield where he owned and edited the Sheffield Iris Newspaper. For 31 years he used it to defend freedom of speech and the press. He was imprisoned twice for articles he published.
He wrote about 400 hymns and three hymnbooks; lectured on poetry; strongly supported the cause of missions and the British Bible Society; vigorously denounced the slave traffic then prevalent; possessed childlike simplicity and a strong faith in God. His hymns and paraphrases of the psalms demonstrate his familiarity with the Scriptures.
He died in his sleep at home on April 30, 1854. His work had been acknowledged in 1833 by the receipt of a royal pension of £200 per year. After his death, he was honoured by a stain-glass window in the parish church in Sheffield.
Here are the words in the final verse of his beloved song:
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.
Amen.