Advent 1

Here is what I had to say about Advent this time last year; I still hold to it.

Meanwhile, we've just driven home from Tennessee in company with the fish, because we couldn't think what else to do with him over the long holiday weekend. The rabbit we could leave food and hay and water for, but you can't leave extra food out for a betta in a bowl, and you can't leave him to starve, either. So when we made our Thanksgiving trek, Alfie came with us in a jam jar and spent the weekend on the kitchen counter in my mother's guest house. And now he's back again, no worse for the wear, though the rest of us feel somewhat steamrolled after twelve hours of heavy traffic and granola bars.

Here -- with no transition whatsoever -- is my favorite, my most favorite of all time, hymn for Advent, because although the season is all about the escalation of longing, both temporal and eschatological (if those two terms are opposites; I'm not sure they are, entirely), you might as well plunge right in. So say I, at any rate.

Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending
(click the title to hear a cheese-ola midi-file audio arrangement of a completely sublime tune)

Lo! He comes with clouds descending,
Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall now behold Him
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.

Every island, sea, and mountain,
Heav’n and earth, shall flee away;
All who hate Him must, confounded,
Hear the trump proclaim the day:
Come to judgment! Come to judgment! Come to judgment!
Come to judgment! Come away!

Now redemption, long expected,
See in solemn pomp appear;
All His saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet Him in the air:
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
See the day of God appear!

Answer Thine own bride and Spirit,
Hasten, Lord, the general doom!
The new Heav’n and earth t’inherit,
Take Thy pining exiles home:
All creation, all creation, all creation,
Travails! groans! and bids Thee come!

The dear tokens of His passion
Still His dazzling body bears;
Cause of endless exultation
To His ransomed worshippers;
With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars!

Yea, Amen! let all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for Thine own;
O come quickly! O come quickly! O come quickly!
Everlasting God, come down!

Charles Wesley

Here (according to the page at Cyber Hymnal)is what believed to be the original version of Cennick’s text:

Lo! He cometh, countless Trumpets,
Blow before his bloody Sign!
’Midst ten Thousand Saints and Angels,
See the Crucified shine,
Allelujah! Welcome, welcome bleeding Lamb!

Now his Merits by the Harpers,
Thro’ the eternal Deeps resounds!
resplendent shine his Nail Prints,
Ev’ry Eye shall see his Wounds!
They who pierc’d Him, shall at his appearing wail.

Ev’ry Island, Sea, and Mountain,
Heav’n and Earth shall flee away!
All who hate him must ashamed,
Hear the Trump proclaim the Day:
Come to Judgment! Stand before the Son of Man!

All who love him view his Glory
Shining in his bruised Face:
His dear Person on the Rainbow,
Now his Peoples Heads shall raise:
Happy Mourners! Now on Clouds he comes! He comes!

Now Redemption long expected,
See, in solemn Pomp appear;
All his People, once despised,
Now shall meet him in the Air:
Allelujah! Now the promis’d Kingdom’s come!

View him smiling, now determin’d,
Ev’ry Evil to destroy!
All the nations now shall sing him,
Songs of everlasting Joy!
O come quickly! Allelujah! Come Lord, come!

All right, here are the words I'm most familiar with, from the Oremus Hymnal page:

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.

Every eye shall now behold him,
robed in dreadful majesty;
those who set at nought and sold him,
pierced, and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.

Those dear tokens of his passion
still his dazzling body bears,
cause of endless exultation
to his ransomed worshipers;
with what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
gaze we on those glorious scars!

Now redemption, long expected,
see in solemn pomp appear;
all his saints, by man rejected,
now shall meet him in the air:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
See the day of God appear!

Yea, amen! let all adore thee,
high on thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory;
claim the kingdom for thine own:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Thou shalt reign, and thou alone.

Words: John Cennick (1718-1755), 1752;
as altered by Charles Wesley (1707-1788), 1758;
and then altered by Martin Madan (1726-1790), 1760

MIDI: Helmsley Martin Madan, 1726-1790 (the midi file at Oremus is far superior to the one at Cyberhymnal, by the way).

Learn and sing this hymn for Advent, and you won't even be tempted to hum "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night" on the third of December. Not even a little tempted.

Which reminds me that some years ago, Fr. Hunwicke, who compiles the Ordo, the service order/liturgical calendar for the Church of England, held a contest for "Worst Gospel Acclamation." For those unfamiliar with this liturgical convention, it's just a little dippity-do right before the Gospel, in which the celebrant or the choir and the people get to weigh in with some kind of antiphonal thought-for-the-day.

I don't remember what any of the other contenders were, but the winner went like this:

V: While shepherds watched their flocks by night
R: All seated on the ground.

I suppose you could also have this:

V: Here she comes, just a-walking down the street
R: Singing doo-wa-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-doo

But only for a Marian feast.

Of additional possible interest:

A little Charles Wesley bio Having passed through Methodism and Anglicanism on my way to Rome, I retain a great fondness for this particular Wesley.

A discussion of the naming of hymn tunes at Ship of Fools. There are several to which "Lo He Comes" is set, but Helmsley is the one for me.