Hymn Stories: Angels from the Realms of Glory Adapted from 101 Hymn Stories – Kenneth W. Osbeck Author: James Montgomery 1771-1854
Composer: Henry Smart 1813-1879
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.
James Montgomery’s parents were Moravian missionaries to the West Indies. While attending a Moravian seminary in England, young James received word of the sudden death of both his parents on the mission field. He left the seminary and for a period lived a life of aimless discouragement. Soon, however, he became interested in newspaper work, and at the age of twenty-three was appointed editor of the weekly Sheffield Register in London, where he remained for thirty-one years. While in this position, he championed many different causes and was ever-ready to assist the poor and defend the rights of the down-trodden. In 1825, he gave up his paper to devote himself entirely to his writing and philanthropy.
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” first appeared as a poem in his paper on December 24, 1816. Later, it was published in a hymnal entitled Montgomery’s Original Hymns. It is considered to be one of our finest Advent hymns. It is commonly agreed by students of
hymnology that next to Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, no writer has made a greater contribution to English hymnody than James Montgomery.
The composer of the tune “Regent Square”, Henry Smart, was one of the finest organists and composers in Britain is his day. “Regent Square” was written during the last fifteen years of his
life, when he was totally blind. The tune was composed for a hymnal being compiled by Dr. Hamilton, pastor of London’s Regent Square Presbyterian Church.
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