The Story Behind the Song
Christmas is traditionally a season for family. Secular Christmas songs understand this truth—“There’s no place like home for the holidays,” “I’ll be home for Christmas,” and even Elvis’ “I’ll have a blue Christmas without you.” Often the clan gathers and renews existing relationships or meets new members who have been born or married into the family. As Frank Sinatra sang in “Mistletoe and Holly,” Christmas is a time for “merry greeting from relatives you don’t know.”
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The hymn that’s the subject of today’s “The Story Behind the Song” has its own unique family angle. “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” was written by a pastor/poet, Joseph Simpson Cook (1859-1933), in 1917. Cook was born in England but emigrated to Canada by the time he was a young man. He entered the ministry as a Methodist probationer in 1880 (in this context, probation is a period of testing of a potential minister before he is formally ordained) and served Methodist and United Church of Canada congregations until he retired in 1919.
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The same year he retired, Cook entered the Christmas poem he had written two years earlier in a contest sponsored by the newspaper “Christian Guardian,” the official journal of Methodists in Canada. “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” took the top prize and was quickly accepted by churches in Canada. It was published in “The Hymnary,” a United Church of Canada hymnal, in 1930; its editor, Alexander MacMillan, would write just five years later that “this lyric is already welcomed and sung at the Christmas season throughout the Dominion.”
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Here’s where the family angle comes into play. For the song’s first inclusion in a hymnal, MacMillan chose to pair the words with an old tune, TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, a “Spring carol” from the 14th century. (“Tempus adest floridum” is a Latin phrase meaning “It is time for flowering,” hence it’s designation as a Spring carol). He used the arrangement that his own son, Ernest MacMillan, had written. This is the tune that is also sung to the lyric, “Good King Wenceslas.”
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That father/son connection is not the only family association, however. The author’s daughter, Alta Lind Cook, wrote another tune for her father’s poem. GENTLE MARY is a gentler tune, more like a lullaby, than the one more commonly used with the words.
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“Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” is a very simple song that conveys a very deep message. It reminds us of the unique position Jesus holds as fully human (“…Mary laid her child…”) and fully divine (“Son of God…”). It confirms that Jesus was without sin (“He is still the undefiled…”), calling to mind Biblical passages such as 1 Peter 2:22, Hebrews 4:15, and 1 John 3:5. It proclaims the gospel message that He is the Savior who has come to save all who will accept His offer of salvation by grace (“Ask the saved of all the race who have found His favor”). Simple words, singable tune, profound meaning—all combine to help us “Praise His name in all the earth, Hail the King of glory!”
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