Christians Awake! Salute the happy morn (Wainwright)

Carols

Composer:		John Wainwright
Tune:		This tune is known by either Yorkshire or Stockport
Voicing:		SATB
Words:		John Byrom

Christians, awake, salute the happy morn
Whereon the Saviour of the world was born.
Rise to adore the mystery of love
Which hosts of angels chanted from above,
With them the joyful tidings first begun
Of God incarnate and the virgin's Son.

Then to the watchful shepherds it was told,
Who heard th’angelic herald’s voice, “Behold,
I bring good tidings of a Saviour's birth
To you and all the nations of the earth;
This day hath God fulfilled His promised Word;
This day is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord.”

He spoke; and straightaway the celestial choir
In hymns of joy, unknown before, conspire;
The praises of redeeming love they sang,
And Heav’n’s whole orb with alleluias rang.
God's highest glory was their anthem still,
Peace on the earth and unto men good will.

To Bethl’hem straight th'enlightened shepherds ran
To see the wonder God had wrought for man
And found, with Joseph and the blessed maid,
Her Son, the Saviour, in a manger laid;
Then to their flocks, still praising God, return,
And their glad hearts with holy rapture burn.

O may we keep and ponder in our mind
God's wondrous love in saving lost mankind!
Trace we the Babe, who hath retrieved our loss,
From His poor manger to His bitter cross,
Tread in His steps, assisted by His grace,
Till man’s first heav’nly state again takes place.

Then may we hope, th’angelic hosts among,
To sing, redeemed, a glad triumphal song.
He that was born upon this joyful day
Around us all His glory shall display.
Saved by His love, incessantly we sing
Eternal praise to Heav’n’s almighty King.

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Taoyuan Grace Baptist Church

John Byrom or John Byrom of Kersal or John Byrom of Manchester FRS (29 February 1692 – 26 September 1763) was an English poet, the inventor of a revolutionary system of shorthand and later a significant landowner. He is most remembered as the writer of the lyrics of Anglican hymn Christians awake! Salute the happy morn, which was supposedly a Christmas gift for his daughter.

Byrom was descended from an old genteel Lancashire family. Ralph Byrom came to Manchester from Lowton in 1485 and became a prosperous wool merchant. His son Adam acquired property in Salford, Darcy Lever, Bolton and Ardwick (though his wealth did not prevent his mentally ill daughter from being accused of witchcraft). Edward Byrom helped to foil a Royalist plot to seize Manchester in 1642.

Byrom was born at what is now The Old Wellington Inn (part of the Old Shambles), Manchester, in 1692. (The property was then used as an office for market tolls, with accommodation on the upper floors.) The Wellington Inn, now a major tourist attraction, has a plaque in the bar area which commemorates his birth. However, some sources claim that he was born at Kersal Cell in Lower Kersal in the township of Broughton, near Salford, just outside Manchester. According to Bailey he was one of the tallest men in the kingdom.

His privileged background enabled him to obtain an excellent education, including The King's School, Chester, and Merchant Taylors' School, London. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a fellow there in 1714. He subsequently travelled abroad and studied medicine at Montpellier in France.

Byrom invented a system of shorthand and, having perfected this, returned to England in 1716. Some of the inhabitants of Manchester tried to persuade him to set up a medical practice in the town, but he decided that his abilities were insufficient to pursue a medical career and resolved to teach his shorthand system instead. Shortly after coming into his family inheritance in 1740, he patented his New Universal Shorthand. This system of shorthand, officially taught at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, was used by the clerk of the House of Lords.

On 16 June 1742, His Majesty George II secured to John Byrom, M.A., the sole right of publishing for a certain term of years (21) the art and method of shorthand invented by him.

His system of shorthand was posthumously published as The Universal English Shorthand which, although superseded in the nineteenth century, marked a significant development in the history of shorthand. It was used by John (1703–1791) and Charles Wesley (1707–1788), founders of Methodism, who recorded their self-examinations in coded diaries.

Although Byrom is probably best remembered for this Christmas carol, he was regarded by his contemporaries as a poet and a literary man. Most of his poems, the best-known of which is My spirit longeth for Thee, were religious in tone. He is also remembered for his epigrams and, above all, his coinage of the phrase Tweedledum and Tweedledee (in connection with a dispute about the merits of the two composers, Handel and Bononcini).

Byrom did not lead an ordinary provincial life. He was a member of the Royal Society while Sir Isaac Newton was president, moving in some very influential social and intellectual circles in London and elsewhere. Modern research has revealed him to be something of a man of mystery. In the first place there is the question of his political views. It was once thought that he was a closet Jacobite, but it is now suggested that he may have acted as a double agent, the "Queen's Chameleon". His views might be summed up in the verse that he composed, in the form of a toast:

   God bless the King! (I mean our faith's defender!)
   God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender.
   But who Pretender is, and who is King,
   God bless us all! That's quite another thing!

Byrom died in 1763 and is buried in his family's private chapel, which is now known as Jesus Chapel in Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, England. His papers, though preserved for some time after his death, were mysteriously destroyed in the nineteenth century. A freemason, few surviving items have suggested that he may have belonged to an early quasi-masonic society, known as the "Cabala Club", similar to the Gentleman's Club of Spalding, and pursued occult interests.

His library of books and manuscripts was donated to Chetham's Library by his descendent Eleanora Atherton in 1870.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Metasyntactic variable".

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