These words were written in 1872 and appeared in Holland’s The Marble Prophecy and Other Poems. Josiah Gilbert Holland was born July 24, 18 19, in Belchertown, Massachusetts. He prepared for a career

medicine, and practiced for a short time in Springfield, Massachusetts. Changing to literary pursuits, he joined the Springfield Republican as author of the “Timothy Titcomb” letters, and helped to start Scribner’s Magazine, serving as its editor for 11 years until his death in New York, October 21, 1881. His Complete Poetical Writings was published in 1879.

The tune CHRISTMAS SONG was composed by Karl Pomeroy Harrington during a vacation at his summer cottage in New Hampshire in July 1904. It was included with this text in the 1905 Methodist Hymnal, for which he served as musical editor with Peter C. Lutkin (see ST)AH 669). Born June 13, 1861, in Somersworth, New Hampshire, Harrington was educated at Wesleyan University (B.A., 1882; M.A., 1885), and became a well-known teacher of Latin, filling posts at Wilbraham Academy, Wesleyan University, University of North Carolina, and the University of Maine. He usually served as organist in churches nearby, and in turn was director of the Festival Chorus, Bangor, Maine; founder and director of the Chapel Hill Choral Society, North Carolina; and director of the Middlesex Musical Association. He was a member of the committee and musical editor for the 1935 Methodist Hymnal, edited six hymn and song collections, and wrote the book Education in Church Music, 1931. He wrote many unpublished songs, anthems, and responses. He died at Berkeley, California, November 14, 1953.

-from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White