It is not surprising that Charles Wesley wrote the hymn that this story is about. It is one of 6500 hymns that he composed and one that is considered to be among Wesley’s finest. It is thought to have been written approximately a year after his dramatic Aldersgate conversion experience in 1738. There is no doubt that HARK, THE HERALD ANGELS SING, has become a classic Christmas carols. This carol is sung thousands of times every year…all around the world.
It first appeared in the Hymns and Sacred Poems published in 1739. The text was altered to its present form in George Whitefield’s, Collection of 1753.
Like so many of Wesley’s hymns, the text is really a condensed course in biblical doctrine put in poetic form. Following the re-telling of the angelic visit to the shepherds in the initial stanza, the succeeding verses teach such spiritual truths as the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the immortality of the soul, the second or new birth and a concern for Christ-like living. Wesley’s hymns were written so that men and women could sing their way to biblical knowledge and an understanding of truth through the gentle hand of melody and rhyme.