Written in 1866, this carol, each stanza of which refers to a major event in the life and ministry of Jesus, was published that same year in The Dove, a Collection of Music for Day and Sunday Schools, Chicago. For a long time it appeared with 10 stanzas, each one a couplet. Donald Hustad of Hope Publishing Company printed it with Hanby’s own tune in Worship and Service Hymnal, 1957, which is the version used by Baptist Hymnal, 1975. 

Benjamin Russel Hanby (1833-1867) was born the son of a bishop in the United Brethren Church, and became a minister of that church, with an emphasis on music ministry. He coedited Chapel Gems, 1866, with George F. Root (see SDAH 88) in Chicago, and wrote the lyrics for the popular “Darling Nellie Gray,” for which his sister composed the music. He died at the height of his creative powers, at age 34. 

RESONET IN LAUDIBUS (Let It Echo With Praises) is an old German carol tune usually associated with the Christmas carol “Joseph, Dearest, Joseph Mine,” found in the Oxford Book of Carols, 1928. This carol works very well when sung antiphonally, one group asking the questions in line 1, the other answering in line 2, and all joining together on the refrain.