When Love Fills All the Universe (Day Eleven)

The song the herald angels sang,
O’er Bethlehem’s starlit plain,
Still echoes in the hearts of earth,
A gladsome sweet refrain,
A gladsome sweet refrain.
Peace, peace on earth, good will to all,
Let justice reign supreme,
When love fills all the universe,
The past is but a dream.

Thro’ all these long millennia,
This song of peace and love,
Has breathed its balm of blessing,
And hovered like a dove,
And hovered like a dove.
Above the restless pulse of earth,
Bidding our sorrows cease,
Till war and strife are ended,
And nations dwell in peace.

Thro’ all the ages yet to come,
’Twill whisper sweet and low,
If we but love each other true,
’Tis heav’n begun below,
’Tis heav’n begun below.
And so with song and radiance,
The way will grow more bright,
Till the star that shines o’er Bethlehem,
Fills all the world with light.

Jennie Wayne, 1891; alt.
Tune: THE STAR AND THE SONG (Irregular)
Pluma M. Brown, 1897

Pluma Brown (1858-1940) was a hymnal editor as well as a composer - many of her tunes appear in the Song-Hymnal of Praise and Joy (1897) which she compiled.  Not all of the tunes are necessarily worthy of revival - even this one has a peculiar moment in the middle of the stanza (the repeated line). If I were republishing this tune I might just leave those measures out...



Six Years Ago: In the lonely midnight

One Year Ago: Love came down at Christmas