This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
A baby in a manger
A baby in a manger
"A baby in a manger is lying in the hay.
A Saviour has been born, and you'll find him there today."
So the shepherds went in haste:
down to Bethlehem they chased,
and came to Christ the Lord as they'd heard the angel say.
"A star appeared on high to proclaim an infant king.
Please tell us where he lies, for we wish to worship him."
So the wise men went in haste:
down to Bethlehem they chased,
and bowed before the child, bringing him their offering.
"A baby to the temple will come soon after birth:
he is the Christ of God, you will recognise his worth."
So the old man went in haste,
took the child in his embrace,
acclaimed him as the Saviour of all who dwell on earth.
The baby in the manger has faced the cross and died,
he conquered death, he rose, he's ascended, glorified.
So let's come to him in haste,
trust in him, receive his grace:
for in his risen life we are saved and sanctified.
Words and music copyright © John Hartley 2006.
Story behind the song
I confess that this song was sparked off by a friend who said, on the e-mail critique list of Christian Songwriting Organisation, that although the secular world has few problems writing songs like "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" and others which make hardly a reference to Jesus' birth, the Christian world finds the subject more difficult. Christmas is about the wonder of the doctrine of the incarnation, but somehow unless it's linked to the sweet little baby it doesn't seem to bridge the gap between the committed and the occasionals who attend the annual carol service.
So this was an attempt to start with the baby in the manger, and by examining the responses of three parties in the bible, to suggest what our response should be and to continue the story to the point where it is the risen Christ who makes an impact in the lives of his followers.
I'm grateful to friends in Christian Songwriting Organisation for critiques of the words leading to improvements.
I also confess that although I wrote the tune from scratch, it turns out that it's extremely similar to "Kelvingrove", which is itself based on a Scottish traditional tune (in "Common Ground" the melody is shown as arranged by John Bell), and I had probably been influenced by these.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.