Westminster

IN THE FIELD WITH THEIR FLOCKS ABIDING

by

In the field with their flocks abiding,
They lay on the dewy ground;
And glimmering under the starlight,
The sheep lay white around;
When the light of the Lord streamed o’er them,
And lo! from heaven above,
An angel leaned from the glory,
And sang his song of love.
He sang, that first sweet Christmas,
The song that shall never cease.

Refrain
“Glory to God in the highest,
On earth good will and peace.”

“To you in the city of David
A Savior is born today!”
And sudden a host of the heavenly ones
Flashed forth to join the lay.
O never hath sweeter message
Thrilled home to the souls of men
And the heavens themselves had never heard
A gladder choir till then.
For they sang that Christmas carol
That never on earth shall cease. Refrain

And the shepherds came to the manger,
And gazed on the Holy Child;
And calmly o’er that rude cradle
The virgin mother smiled;
And the sky in the starlit silence,
Seemed full of the angel lay:
“To you in the City of David
A Savior is born today!”
O they sang, and we pray that never
The carol on earth shall cease. Refrain

About the writer: Frederick W. Farrar, a cleric in the Church of England, was the son of C. P. Farrar, a missionary to India. He was born in Bombay, India in 1831 and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with high honors in 1854. In 1876 he was made a Canon of Westminster Abbey and rector of St. Margaret’s Church. Dr. Farrar became Dean of Canterbury in 1895 and died there in 1903. He was the author of many books including the best-seller Life and Work of St. Paul.

Key Verses: That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened. –Luke 2:8, 9

Morgan, George Campbell

by

George Campbell Morgan (1863-1945) was born in Gloucestershire, England. He was ordained in the Congregational Church and began his ministry at churches in Birmingham and London. In 1883 he began working with Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey during a revival in Britain. He went with them to the United States in 1896 and spent several years in America as an evangelist and Bible conference speaker. He returned to England in 1904 and served Westminster Congregational Chapel in London for 13 years, building it from a small church into one of the largest and most influential congregations in England. He traveled widely for the next 15 years, conducting numerous evangelistic crusades in America and Canada. For a time he was the pastor of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. In 1935 he returned to Westminster where he remained until shortly before his death. He was the author of many Bible commentaries and edited the Westminster Pulpit. His collections of sermons and Bible studies were widely popular and highly influential during the first half of the 20th century.

Machen, John Gresham

by

John Gresham Machen (1881-1937) was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a tremendous scholar who studied at Johns Hopkins and Princeton in the United States and at Marburg in Germany. Ordained in 1914 he became a professor of New Testament literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. He left the school due to his conservative theology and the school’s rapid drift toward liberalism. In 1929 he founded the Westminster Theological Seminary and became its president and professor of New Testament. He took similar steps when he resigned from the Presbyterian Board of Missions to found an independent society and when he and a group of like-minded clergy started the Orthodox Presbyterian church. He was a staunch defender of conservative Christianity at a time when scholars of his stature were nearly all liberal.

Cowper, William

by

William Cowper (1731-1800) was born in Hertfordshire, England. His father, Reverend John Cowper, was a chaplain to George II. He spent ten years in Westminster School and then began reading law; abandoning it for literature after a very brief practice. He became the most distinguished poet of the English language in the latter half of the 18th century. Despite this he suffered from debilitating depression. In 1767 he moved to Olney, the home of John Newton. Cowper was a constant and prayerful attendant at Newton’s church services; especially his cottage prayer meetings, for which nearly all of his hymns were written at Newton’s request. The Olney Hymns, 1779, was their joint production; 78 of them coming from Cowper. His resolve and willingness to accomplish great things for God despite emotional burdens has long served as a source of encouragement for those who suffer from depression.