Hark The Herald Angels Sing !
About three centuries ago Charles Wesley master of hymn writers was born. In his life time he wrote 6000 hymns and poems. Even today you can not open a hymn book without finding many of Charles Wesley hymns in it.
He wrote such gems has Love Divine, All Love Excelling and Jesus Lover of My Soul, but one of his most famous hymns is Hark The Herald Angels Sing. Why has this hymn lasted all these years and is still sung around the world at Christmas time. It may because the heart of this hymn is telling the eternal truth, of the new born King and peace.
A rejoicing and peaceful spirit can not be produced or can it be restrained be any outward conditions. The Apostle Paul was imprisoned and in the shadow of his approaching death, when he wrote one of his greatest Epistles. It’s theme was joy and it’s purpose was to make the people rejoice.
What do people strive for in life? Money, land or power, which are all good things but which can be lost faster then it took them to get it and only will bring temporary joy and happiness .
Peace and joy are matters of the heart and the spirit giving to you by God. Even if you have little of this world’s goods you may possess a peace which passes all human understanding. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven”, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”.
Joy is that happy affection of the soul which comes from the possession and prospect of good. It comes from a heart that is fixed and full of something eternal and beyond itself. The joy of the earth is sometimes very frustrating, but the joy from God is permanent and satisfying. A true joy comes from our sense of pardoned for our sin and a union with Christ. True joy is pure and enduring and eternal. It is the result of our personal relationship with God and obedience to His law.
What Charles Wesley was telling us in his beautiful hymn is true, we must possess the God of peace, if we are to possess the peace of God. This is the heart of the great Christian message in that hymn, Christ Jesus the new born King was sent into the world that through Him the world might have salvation and than be reconciled to God.
Maybe this Christmas season when you hear or sing the hymn “Hark The Herald Angels Sing” you will feel that joy and peace of God shining in your heart and soul. May His peace be with you all this Christmas season and throughout the New Year !
