Everyone knows that, when the shepherds were out in the fields watching their sheep, they saw some angels singing, “Glory to the new-born king,” because that’s what the carol tells us. Actually that’s not quite how it happened. In fact, the original lines of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” written by Charles Wesley were more accurate: “Hark, how all the welkin rings, ‘Glory to the King of kings…’”
The word “welkin” means “the vault of the sky; the heavens”. According to Luke chapter 2 verse 14, the angels didn’t sing; they spoke. What they said was: “Glory to God in the highest heavens, and on earth peace to his favoured people.” They were actually glorifying God , rather than the new baby. These and other subtle inaccuracies were introduced into Charles Wesley’s words by George Whitfield in 1753, some 14 years after Wesley’s original version had been published. Whitfield’s revision was the version which became popular, and the final stanzas of Wesley’s words have been largely forgotten:
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to thine.
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp Thy image in its place.
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the life, the inner Man:
O! to all thyself impart,
Form’d in each believing heart.