We Three Kings

John Henry Hopkins

“What I am is of little consequence, indeed,” wrote Charles Sweet, from his rectory in Methuen, Massachusetts, in 1893, “but such as I am, after those who gave me life and care and love, I owe to him. This book has been written because I love him, and so have tried to snatch from the maw of Time some relics of his life, whose full beauty will be known of all, as he willed to have it, in God’s own day.” Sweet was referring to his uncle, the Reverend John Henry Hopkins, author and composer of our Hymn of the Week, one of the most beloved of all Christmas and Epiphany hymns, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” Indeed, in his biography of his uncle, Sweet includes the music and the text of “We Three Kings” — I don’t think I’ve ever seen a hymn printed in a biography before.

Hopkins believed that when it comes to hymns, you should not write down to the lowest taste, but rather uplift the people, and the readiest way to do that was to be led and inspired by hymns of the past. He also made it clear that poetic inspiration and musical inspiration were God’s gifts to individuals and not to Church councils or committees. “I should like to see the General Convention go to work to compose a hymn,” Hopkins said, “or watch one of its committees trying to produce a suitable tune to a hymn!” Gosh, I sure wish the editors of our hymnals would at least try to understand what poetry is, and not mangle the works of people who can’t defend themselves anymore! With that high aim in mind, you might imagine that Hopkins, who wrote both the music and the poetry for “We Three Kings,” was thinking of some big church choir and thousand-piped organ. Not at all! He composed it in 1857, six years before he published it in a book of hymns, for his nieces and nephews and a family Christmas pageant they were putting on.

Of that hymn, Sweet, writing only 30 years after its publication, says, “He wrote several carols also, some of which have the genuine ring of the true religious folk-song. One of them, ‘We three Kings of Orient are,’ is known everywhere in this country, and in England, too. He wrote its tune also, which has so strong a flavor of the antique that not only in England, where the writer was not known, but in the United States, and in Church publications, it has been cited as an ‘ancient carol.’” That comment is really quite astute. I myself, thinking of “We Three Kings,” assumed that it was a traditional English carol. See what you can do if you deign to be taught by what has come before! And of course it is perfect for a Christmas pageant, since you can have each of the three kings sing his own verse, and then have everybody, including the audience, join in the finale. Maestro.

Hopkins’ own words apply: “He who furnishes one good hymn as a permanent part of the devotions of the Church, has done more than he who publishes several volumes of sermons.” Not that Hopkins was an indifferent preacher, either: he preached the sermon in New York City at the funeral of a fellow named Ulysses S. Grant.

Why three kings? Matthew doesn’t specifically say there were three, but Christians have always portrayed them as such, from the three gifts they give. They’ve also meditated on the meaning of those gifts. The anonymous Master of the Wakefield cycle of “mystery” plays (they’re called “mystery” plays not because they deal with mysteries, but because the craftsmen in each guild, each “mystery” or master-craft, would devote themselves to the staging and the props and the acting) has his three shepherds give to the baby Jesus each a different gift: a ball, a bird, and a bob of cherries. The ball represents the globe, the world, which everybody knew was round, and so it suggests Christ’s being a king — corresponding to the royal gold the first king gives. The bird, probably the tame dove, suggests the Holy Spirit, but in a general sense it also suggests the action of prayer, communicating between earth and heaven. That, of course, is the role of the priest, and so the second shepherd corresponds to the second king and his gift of priestly frankincense. The bob of blood-red cherries — and how do you get a bob of cherries in the middle of winter? but the medieval plays were staged in June, for the three-day feast of Corpus Christi — suggest the blood that Christ will shed on the Cross, that true Tree of Life, fruitful for all believers. So the third shepherd and his gift bring to mind the third king, with the bitter gift of myrrh, the aromatic spice for anointing the body when it is placed in the tomb.

But we can’t end there, can we? Christ is king and priest and sacrifice, or rather the King, and God Himself, and the one and only sacrifice that can make atonement for man’s sin. So we have to have that fifth verse, when everybody joins, as those first words ring out loud and clear, “Glorious now behold him arise!” And earth and heaven are made one.

Listen to our hymn of the Week sung by the always-excellent Kings College Choir, Cambridge.

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Join us as a paid subscriber now during our Christmas Special Forever Rate.

We three kings of orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
Refrain.  O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright;
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light!

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain,
Gold I bring to crown him again,
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign.  Refrain.

Frankincense to offer have I,
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, all men raising,
Worship him, God most high.  Refrain.

Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.  Refrain.

Glorious now behold him arise,
King, and God, and Sacrifice;
Heaven sings Alleluia,
Alleluia the earth replies!