As we transition out of the Christmas season and into Epiphany, we slip in one last Christmas carol in my ongoing series Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth. This week’s selection does work well for Epiphany — though my youth was pretty much devoid of references to the church calendar apart from Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday. “Angels From the Realms of Glory” was written in 1816 by James Montgomery, a bit of a revolutionary himself. Montgomery published the carol in the Shef­field news­pa­per, The Iris, on Christ­mas Eve in 1816.

My childhood memories of the carol would be the first line, then words words words, refrain, words words words refrain, and so forth. Basically I remember very little of the words, just the melody and the continued call to “come and worship.” For Epiphany, we see in the hymn a call directed at shepherds, sages, saints, sinners, and in fact all creation to come and worship “Christ, the newborn King.”

Angels From the Realms of Glory

Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation’s story
Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching o’er your flocks by night,
God with us is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light:

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
Ye have seen His natal star.

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Saints, before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear;
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear.

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

Though an Infant now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father’s throne,
Gather all the nations to Him;
Every knee shall then bow down:

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

All creation, join in praising
God, the Father, Spirit, Son,
Evermore your voices raising
To th’eternal Three in One.

Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.

The angels bid us with all creation, “Come and worship.”