A stable lamp was lighted

A stable lamp was lighted. Richard Wilbur* (1921-2017). According to The Hymnal 1982 Companion, this was written for a candlelight service on 7 December 1958 at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, prefaced by a quotation from Luke 19: 40: ‘I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out’. It was used by the Wilbur family as its Christmas card in 1958 (Companion, Volume 3A, pp. 203-4, note to hymn 104). Entitled ‘A Christmas Hymn’, this was published in Wilbur’s Advice to a Prophet and Other Poems (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1961). It was included in the Lutheran series Contemporary Worship – I (1969), in The Hymn Book (Toronto, 1971) of...

If you have a valid subscription to Dictionary of Hymnology, please log in to view this content. If you require a subscription, please click here.

Cite this article