Sunday's Hymn: Incarnation

This week’s hymn will feature the doctrine of the incarnation again. This time it’s an oldie but goodie by Charles Wesley.

Hark The Herald Angel’s Sing 

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

Refrain

Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart. (Listen)

More on the doctrine of the incarnation:

• Immanuel, a sermon by Dan Phillips (mp3)
• Thinking about the Incarnation: The Divine Word Became Flesh by Kenneth Richard Samples
  

Today is going to be a really busy day for me. If I can manage it, I’ll go around later, collecting links to other hymns and post them, but I can’t promise anything.

Light (6)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

John 1:14-18 ESV

Vintage Christmas Images: Insist on Slinky

Yet another old Christmas ad, this one for Slinky Toys, with pictures of the Original Slinky, the Slinky Soldiers, the Slinky Seal, the Slinky Handcar, the Slinky Spiral, and the Slinky Dog. For Christmas 1957, you could place an Original Slinky, the Spiral Slinky or the Seal Slinky under the tree for only one dollar. The other pictured slinky toys would set you back two bucks.

I really like that Spiral Slinky. The other variations on the original are pretty silly, if you ask me. I remember the Slinky Dog from the movie Toy Story, but I still think it’s silly.

In one of the few photos of me as a toddler, I am holding a slinky. That photo would have been taken about 1957, so perhaps some child in Trailerville got a slinky for Christmas. (It wasn’t mine, because the only toys I had then were a little broom, a little red wooden rocking chair, and a piggy bank that I would soon drop and break into a million pieces.)

At the time of this ad, a good chunk of the resources from the Slinky empire were being funneled by Slinky founder Richard James into some sort of Bolivian religious organization. Details about the organization are sketchy. Some say it was a religious cult and others say it was just a group of Episocopalian enthusiasts. (Is Episcopalian enthusiasts an oxymoron?) Whatever it was, by 1960, Richard James had left everything behind, including his wife and six kids, in order to move to Bolivia. His company was near bankruptcy, but brave Betty James managed to turn things around, partly with the help of a new advertising jingle.

Do you remember the Slinky jingle? I’ll start it for you, and you see if you can finish. “It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, For fun it’s a wonderful toy. It’s Slinky, it’s Slinky, It’s fun _______.” How’d you do?

Today, you can buy an Original Slinky for about $3.50 US or $5.00 Canadian and rest easy knowing that none of your money is going to fund Episcopalians, gung-ho or otherwise.