Our Christmas Message
While heart and strength as one combine
To celebrate Christ'a birth;
May faith and love in songs divine
Rise to celestial mirth.
But those that riot, sware and lie
And Christmas spend in sin,
Without a turn in hell shall burn
When Jesus comes again.
-Edward Trivett
(Edward Trivett was a Baptist Pastor in Norfolk in the late 18th Century)
To celebrate Christ'a birth;
May faith and love in songs divine
Rise to celestial mirth.
But those that riot, sware and lie
And Christmas spend in sin,
Without a turn in hell shall burn
When Jesus comes again.
-Edward Trivett
(Edward Trivett was a Baptist Pastor in Norfolk in the late 18th Century)
posted by Highland Host at 12:13 pm
7 Comments:
Ouch.
They don't write 'em like they used to...
fb
I love that 18th century tongue!
Horrible maybe.
But true.
Trivett's poetry, though popular in the early 19th Century, now languishes in obscurity. It is a trifle rustic.
Further note: This was THE Christmas hymn in Norfolk two hundred years ago. Trivett was Norfolk's Matt Redman back then!
He was pastor at Worstead Baptist Church. I don't have his dates with me.
Actually, I like the hymn. It calls on Christians to joyfully celebrate Christmas, and warns that those who reject Christ and use the festival of his first coming as an excuse for ungodly revelry will, unless they repent ('turn'), have nothing to celebrate when Christ comes again.
A note for those (Michael Haykin) interested in the source of the verse. I found it in Charles Boardman Jewson's 'The Baptists in Norfolk' (London, Carey Kingsgate Press, 1957). I am spending Christmas in Norfolk, so I thought the verse appropriate.
Further note for Dr. Haykin. The important part of the sentence "This was THE Christmas hymn in Norfolk two hundred years ago." is "in Norfolk". It is, of course, more than somewhat in jest.
Post a Comment
<< Home