Notes
1. G. F. Handel, Messiah, “Hallelujah Chorus.”
2. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “carol,” last updated June 15, 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/carol.
3. Michelle Blake, The Tentmaker (New York: Penguin, 2000), 155.
4. Robert Herrick, “A Christmas Carol Sung to the King in the Presence at Whitehall,” in A Wreath of Christmas Carols and Poems, chosen and edited with notes by William Andrews (Hull, England: J. R. Tutin, 1906), 38–39.
5. “Louis Bourgeois (composer),” Wikipedia, last edited January 30, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bourgeois_(composer).
6. Mark Dever, The Message of the Old Testament (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2006), 585.
7. Scotty Smith, “A Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent,” The Gospel Coalition, December 1, 2013, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scotty-smith/a-prayer-for-the-first-sunday-of-advent-3/.
8. Skip Moen, “Comfort,” Hebrew Word Study, January 20, 2003, https://skipmoen.com/2003/01/comfort/.
9. John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (New York: Dover Publications, 1957), 1:1277.
10. J. C. Ryle, “J. C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew 1,” Studylight.org, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/ryl/matthew-1.html.
11. John Piper, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” Desiring God, December 13, 2015, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/o-come-o-come-emmanuel.
12. Wikipedia; Wikipedia’s “Hyfrydol” entry, https://findwords.info/term/hyfrydol.
13. Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), 78.
14. Kevin DeYoung, “Of the Father’s Love Begotton,” The Gospel Coalition (Blog), December 11, 2015, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/of-the-fathers-love-begotten-4.
15. Phillip Doddridge, The Works of Rev. P. Doddridge, vol. 1 (Leeds, England: E. Baines, 1802), 20.
16. Michael Green, The Truth of God Incarnate (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977), 36.
17. C. S. Lewis, “One Grand Miracle,” God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 9.
18. John Milton “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” composed 1629, in Paradise Lost and Other Poems of John Milton, ed. Maurice Kelley (New York: Walter J. Black, 1943), 6–9.
19. James Montgomery, Sacred Poems and Hymns (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1854), No. CCXXXIX, 239–40.
20. “Welkin,” Merriam-Webster online, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/welkin.
21. Carl Schalk, “Hymn Writer Jaroslav Vajda Dies,” The LCMS Reporter, May 22, 2008.
22. David Strand, “Now the Poet,” The Lutheran Witness, March 1996.
23. “Edmond Hamilton Sears,” Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography, https://uudb.org/articles/edmundhamiltonsears.html.
24. Edmond H. Sears, Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life, https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-it-came-upon-a-midnight-clear.
25. John M. Mulder, F. Morgan Roberts, Twenty-Eight Carols to Sing at Christmas (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2015), 117.
26. John MacArthur, “We Beheld His Glory,” sermon, Grace to You, December 25, 2011, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/90-423/we-beheld-his-glory.
27. Public address at the Sing 2019 Conference, Nashville, TN, August 2019.
28. Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995), 54.
29. David Mathis, “What Child is This?: Poverty, Not a Palace, for the Greatest King,” December 6, 2015, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-child-is-this.
30. Richard Philips, sermon, Second Presbyterian Church, Greenville, SC, December 24, 2017.
31. The Hymns and Carols of Christmas, https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Biographies/john_jacob_niles.htm.
32. Ligon Duncan, “Songs of Christmas,” sermon, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS, December 13, 2004.
33. “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day—Hope Surfaces from Despair,” New England Historical Society, Arts and Leisure, https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/heard-the-bells-christmas-day-hope-surfaces-despair/.
34. John Piper, “The Meaning of the Manger,” Desiring God, November 30, 2017, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-meaning-of-the-manger.
35. Some sources give his birthplace as Douai, France, or England.
36. Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1980), 86.
37. Joseph Hart, “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Need,” 1759, Timeless Truths, https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Come_Ye_Sinners_Poor_and_Needy/.
38. John Milton “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity,” composed 1629, in Paradise Lost and Other Poems of John Milton, ed. Maurice Kelley (New York: Walter J. Black, 1943), 5, 9.
39. Isaac Watts, quoted in Mark Galli, “Isaac Watts,” Christian History, Christianity Today, https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/poets/isaac-watts.html.
40. Marshall Segal, “Joy to the World,” Desiring God, December 2, 2014, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/joy-to-the-world.
41. Stuart Townend, “Do We Really Need More Worship Songs?,” October 1, 2012, https://www.stuarttownend.co.uk/do-we-really-need-more-worship-songs.
42. Antonín Dvořák, interview in New York Herald, May 21, 1893.
43. James Moffatt, Handbook to the Church Hymnary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927), 318.
44. Jane Stuart Smith, Betty Carlson, Great Christian Hymn Writers (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997), 80.
45. Ibid.
46. Elizabeth Elliott, The Shadow of the Almighty (New York: Harper Publishing, 1958), 53.
47. Jim Denison, “What Are God’s New Year’s Resolutions?,” Denison Forum, December 28, 2019, https://www.denisonforum.org/resources/what-are-gods-new-years-resolutions.
48. “Neumark,” Hymnary.org, https://hymnary.org/person/Neumark_GC.
49. Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Sermons on Jesus and the Holy Spirit (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006), 28–31.
50. Michael Short, Gustav Holst, The Man and His Music (Hastings, Sussex, United Kingdom: Circaidy Gregory Press, 1990), 96.
51. Online Etymology Dictionary, s.v. “holiday (n.),” https://www.etymonline.com/word/holiday.