O Little Town of Bethlehem
On December 24, 1865, Phillips Brooks was half a world away from home and feeling older than his thirty years. Only six years into his ministry, Brooks had been called upon in May to give the funeral message over President Abraham Lincoln. That solemn honor, together with leading the congregation of Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia through the bloody years of the Civil War, had taken its toll. Worn out and needing a spiritual rebirth, Brooks requested a sabbatical and left the United States to tour the Middle East.
On Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, the American felt an urge to get away from the hundreds of other pilgrims who had journeyed to the Holy Land for the holidays. Although warned that he might encounter thieves, the preacher borrowed a horse and set out across the desolate and unforgiving countryside. For many peaceful hours he was alone with his thoughts as he studied a land that had changed little since the days of Paul and Timothy.
At dusk, a sudden sense of awe fell over Brooks. Under a clear sky, the first stars were just beginning to emerge as he rode into the tiny and remote village of Bethlehem. He recalled the story of the birth of his Savior, and by being present in the place in which Jesus was born, was able to add vivid detail to the familiar tale in Scripture. There, on streets almost unchanged since biblical times, Brooks felt as if he were surrounded by the spirit of the first Christmas. As he explained later to family and friends, the experience was so overpowering that, as he put it, it would forever by “singing in my soul.”
He likened his own life, rocky and winding, to the path from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. At the age of 22, the Harvard graduate was a struggling teacher at Boston’s Latin School. Frustrated with trying to teach students who wouldn’t devote the effort Brooks felt was needed to master the course, Brooks gave up. Lacking faith in himself, the young man turned to prayer and Bible study in an effort to find his place in the world. Unsure of his future, Brooks entered the Episcopal Theological Seminary and began pastoral studies. Brooks began his ministry in Philadelphia after graduating in 1859.
In 1861 he was called to lead the congregation of the Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia. Striking up a friendship with well-known real estate agent Lewis Redner. After some convincing by Brooks, Redner became Sunday school superintendent and organist at Trinity. Together Brooks and Redner welcomed thirty children to their first Sunday morning class. Within a year—thanks to Brooks’s preaching and Redner’s music—the Sunday and Wednesday services were filled to overflowing, and one thousand children were attending Sunday school each week. Over the next two years those numbers continued to build.
Yet even as Holy Trinity grew and his fame spread across the country, Brooks was growing physically and spiritually tired. By 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the national spirit was dying almost as quickly as the soldiers on the battlefields. While the preacher tried to fight it, darkness fell over every facet of the services. Everyone wanted an end to the war, yet even though he made a valiant effort, the preacher couldn’t give his flock what they needed most: peace. The pain only intensified when President Lincoln was assassinated. Although he was not Lincoln’s pastor and felt ill-prepared to preside over the ceremony, Brooks was asked to speak at Lincoln’s funeral because of his reputation as an orator. Digging deep, he found words to fit the moment, but the exhaustion of the effort itself left him void of everything he needed as pastor.
In an attempt to rediscover and restore his own faith, Brooks left the pulpit to visit the Holy Land. It was a trip that dramati- cally changed his life and renewed his calling. The experience of walking where Jesus had walked gave him a renewed vigor. When Brooks looked ahead to the holiday season of 1868, he again thought of riding into Bethlehem at dusk and the church service that had followed. This time, he didn’t force the words out, he simply relived the experience and jotted down the lines that seemed to float into his head. His thoughts soon took the form of a poem. When he finished, he hurried to share it with his friend, Lewis Redner.
While reading the simple words, Redner finally understood the power of what Brooks had experienced in the Holy Land. To further share this message, the organist tried to compose music to accompany the poem, but for hours, he struggled at the piano. Just as Brooks had been unable to find dynamic oratory to fully describe what he had experienced in Bethlehem, Redner was unable to compose a melody to carry the preacher’s simple words. As he tried to sleep that Christmas Eve night, long after he had given up his efforts, the organist was suddenly blessed with a tune. As if blessed by God himself, on Christmas morning, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was complete.
For the next six years, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was a Christmas favorite among thousands of people all across America; and by the time of Phillips Brooks’s death in 1893, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” had become one of the most beloved Christmas carols in the world. Brooks is now recognized as the greatest American preacher of the nineteenth century. His first volume of sermons sold more than two hundred thousand copies when it was relesed in 1878. Yet it is Brooks, the songwriter, whose simple work millions now know and cherish. Here’s a gift from one of Phillips Brooks’s sermons for you to dwell on in this holiday season: “It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawns on you.”
(Excerpts from “Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas” by Ace Collins)
