'O Little Town of Bethlehem' remembered long after writer's death

From Alabama-

The famous preacher had been greatly inspired by a year-long visit to the Holy Land during the last year of America’s Civil War. He had been a verse-writer since early childhood.

Raised in a strict Episcopalian home (with a long line of Puritan ancestors), he was taught the hymns of the church. By the time he enrolled at Harvard College, he could recite more than 200 hymns. Through the years, his sermons contained references to those songs of the church and his recollections of his trip to the places where Jesus had lived.

In a Christmas week letter to his parents, the man who would become one of the most famous preachers of his time wrote of seeing “... shepherds keeping watch over their flocks.” It was a scene that fascinated him, maybe, more so than seeing other Biblical sights.

Phillips Brooks, 33 years old, had become rector of Philadelphia’s Holy Trinity Church and had become widely known for his preaching, which attracted huge crowds each Sunday.

In time, he became rector of Boston’s great Trinity Church. In 1868, during preparation for a Christmas Sunday school service, Brooks wrote a simple carol and asked church organist Lewis H. Redner to write the music for it.

More here-

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20111209/NEWS/111209793

Christmas carol had its origin in a Phila. church

There is a Christmas story that every new member of the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square learns soon after joining.

It is about two friends in 1868 - a rector and his organist - and the inspiration that grew from procrastination.

Yesterday afternoon, as church volunteers arranged sprays of red flowers around the altar and children put on costumes for the Christmas pageant, the story of the carol that put the 150-year-old church on the Christmas map was recalled by members.

"It's our claim to fame," said Soozung Rankin, a member for three years, whose 10-week-old son, Robert, was about to debut as Baby Jesus in the manger tableau.

The story begins with a trip to the Holy Land by the church's vicar, the Rev. Phillips Brooks. It was 1865, and Brooks was so moved by what he saw that he penned a poem.

O little town of Bethlehem,

How still we see thee lie.

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/20081225_Christmas_carol_had_its_origin_in_a_Phila__church.html

Happy Birthday Phillips Brooks

One of the great preachers of the 19th Century, Phillips Brooks was born on this day in 1835. He served in Philadelphia before being called to Trinity Boston where he served for many years and then briefly before his death he was Bishop of Massachusetts.

His "Lectures on Preaching" delivered at Yale in 1871 are still worth reading. In the opening pages he writes-

"Let us rejoice with one another that in a world where there are a great many good and happy things for men to do, God has given us the best and happiest, and made us preachers of his truth".

He also wrote the lyrics to "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

There's some more here-

http://www.preaching.com/resources/past_masters/11548006/