We Come With Loud Acclaim

We Come With Loud Acclaim

For Christmas

Words: Not Stated
Believed to be George Washington Bethune
See Below

Music: Not Stated
See Below

Source: John Clark Hollister, ed., The Sunday-School Service and Tune Book (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1863, 1865), #10, pp. 26-7.

1. We come, we come with loud acclaim,
    To sing the praise of Jesus' name,
And make the vaulted temple ring,
    With loud Hosannas to our King!
With joyful heart and smiling face
    We gather round the throne of grace.
And lowly bend to offer there
    From youthful lips our humble prayer,
To Him who slept on Mary's knee
    A gentle child as young as we.

2. We come, we come, the song to swell,
    To Him who loved our world so well,
That, stooping from his Father's throne,
    He died to claim us as our own.
With joy we haste the aisles to fill,
    Yet youthful bands are gathering still.
O, thus may we in heaven above
    Join in a happy song of love,¹
And still, with angels, fill our home
    With joyful cries, they come, they come.

Note:

1. Or: 'Unite in praises and in love,' Return

Sheet Music from John Clark Hollister, ed., The Sunday-School Service and Tune Book (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, 1863, 1865), #10, pp. 26-7.

Note: According to the Cyberhymnal, the author is George Washington Bethune (1805-1862). Additional biographical details are located at that site. The name of this song was listed, but no copy of this song is linked. Longer biographies are found at

George Washington Bethune
(http://www.virtualology.com/apgeorgewashingtonbethune/ )
George Washington Bethune
(http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/b/ed_bethuneGW.htm )

At the University of Georgia, the Hargrett Library Broadside Collection contained an uncorrected OCR of the poem with the following heading:

TO BE SUNG BY THE CHILDREN

DARIEN SABBATH SCHOOL

1844.

There was no attribution. A printed copy was found at UGA's Historical Broadsides: To 1849 (page 121):

On the back of the printed copy was written: "Christmas Hymn, sung by the Children of the Darien Sabbath School, 25th December 1844.

A search of Google™ for "Darien Sabbath School" returned only the site containing the text above. It was presumably located in Darien, McIntosh County, Georgia. On June 11, 1863, Federal troops stationed on St. Simons Island looted and then completely destroyed (by burning) the old town of Darien. Lost were public buildings, churches, businesses and most private residences. The burning of Darien, undefended and of little strategic importance, was one of the most controversial events of the Civil War.

All sites accessed January 13, 2007.

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