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My dictionary tells me that Hark means “listen, used mostly in the imperative”. And in turn imperative means “some duty that is essential and urgent” or “containing a solemn charge or command”.
So no coincidence then that the popular carol begins with this word.
Hark! The Herald Angels sing
Glory to the new-born King
It is urgent and essential that we listen:
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled
Joyful all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
No, we cannot expect all nations and all peoples to be Christian, and nor should they: Christianity is only one glorious face of the many-faceted diamond of truth. But how joyful and triumphant would it be if we could simply recognise each others’ common humanity and grace? We just need to listen. Hark!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen to that!
amen, sister! & thanks for the further clarification of hark & imperative
how very true…and thank you for that.
So true are these words. Words that I wish all mankind would heed.
Just a bit of background on the hymn – from my Suite101 article (http://protestantism.suite101.com/article.cfm/hark_the_herald_angels_sing)
Charles Wesley the author of the hymn is well known for many of the Methodist hymns he wrote during his lifetime “each one packed with doctrine, all of them exhibiting strength and sensitivity both beauty and theological brawn.” (Morgan, 49) He was very temperamental about his work. He insisted that people not change what he had written. In fact, he prefaced one of his hymnals with the following warning:
“I beg leave to mention a thought which has been long upon my mind, and which I should long ago have inserted in the public papers, had I not been unwilling to stir up a nest of hornets. Many gentlemen have done my brother and me (though without naming us) the honor to reprint many of our hymns. Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are. But I desire they would not attempt to mend them, for they are really not able. None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse. Therefore, I must beg of them these two favors: either to let them stand just as they are, to take things for better or worse, or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men.” (Morgan, 49)
It is fortunate for us that Wesley’s friend George Whitfield disregarded his friend’s warning. When Wesley wrote the hymn, the first two lines began “Hark, how the welkin rings, Glory to the King of kings.” Welkin was an old English word meaning “the vault of heaven.” Whitfield changed the lines to the now familiar “Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.”
Isn’t it wonderful that Wesley’s friend disregarded him? Otherwise, we might not even be singing this carol and your thoughts would not have been motivated.
Melissa, thanks for this bit of history. I love these sort of quirky facts. I must read your Suite 101s more often, they’re always really interesting.
I’m really glad welkin didn’t stay in. We have a shellfish in the UK called a whelk – I’ve never come across it elsewhere, maybe called different things in other countries. “Hark how the shellfish clings” would give us another possibility!