For this year's Christmas video, Union's band chose to perform We Three Kings. Written by John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, We Three Kings became the first widely popular Christmas carol written in the United States. You can also find past Christmas videos from the university on this YouTube playlist.
To accompany this instrumental performance, we are including a poem below inspired by the journey of the wise men. Written by Eugene Rowells, a 1914 graduate, it was originally published in the December 1913 edition of Union’s original school newspaper, the Educational Messenger (see pages 5-6). Rowells went on to serve as a pastor and teacher in Bermuda, and to teach at Union and Broadview Theological Seminary (now Broadview Academy). He also continued writing poetry throughout his life and was published in Signs of the Times and other publications.
Christmas Midnight
"And lo, the star which they saw in the east, went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was." (Matthew 2:9)
Long ago, so long that ages —
Troops of many a misty year —
Through old tomes of faded pages
Muster, march, and disappear
Down the shadow-bordered vista
Stretching past our mortal sight,
Earth turned in expectant darkness
On one mystery-hallowed night.
Desert plain and palm-fringed river,
Stone-built wall and ancient hill
Waited, not a leaf a-quiver,
Waited silent, but a-thrill
In the chambers of the midnight,
Star-roofed chambers of the midnight,
Strangely still.
In a lowly room, dim-lighted,
Sat three sages with a scroll,
Body-bent and feeble-sighted,
But with wondrous eyes of soul.
One had placed a marking finger
On the Hebrew scripture dim,
And his brother sages murmured
“Must we longer watch for Him
Who shall come, in grace redeeming
Souls of men from sins that mar?
Is our quest but idle dreaming?
Is His coming yet afar?”
Then in chambers of the midnight,
Holy chambers of the midnight,
Shone a Star.
Through the slumbering street they hastened,
Urging fast their camel’s plod,
And, their aged faces chastened
With the outpoured light of God,
From their star-ward course unswerving,
Still unresting, fast they sped,
Old in years, but eager-footed,
Seeing but the star that led.
Gifts of gold and myrrh they carried,
Gems that should the King adorn;
And they slackened not nor tarried
Till they stood, long ere the morn,
Where, at heaven-historic midnight,
In a manger, and at midnight,
Christ was born.
So to-night may I, discerning
Beams above life’s Bethlehem,
Neither right nor leftward turning,
Like the wise men, follow them;
Pausing not for worldly folly,
Waiting not for what may be,
Seeing but the Star’s near glory
That through darkness leadeth me.
Though I have not golden treasure,
Incense, myrrh, or spice to bring,
I can give my life’s full measure,
Faith to follow, love to cling;
I can give, this Christmas midnight,
Give my heart, this Christmas midnight,
To the King.
by Eugene C. Rowells