Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ~ Isaiah 7:14
Christmas Song Lyrics Compiled by Charles P. Scott
Go, Tell it on the Mountain
Lyrics
While shepherds kept their watching
Over silent flocks by night,
Behold throughout the heavens,
There shone a holy light.
Go, Tell it on the Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell it on the Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.
The shepherds feared and trembled
When lo! Above the earth
Rang out the angel chorus
That hailed our Savior's birth.
Go, Tell it on the Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell it on the Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.
Down in a lowly manger
Our humble Christ was born
And God send us salvation,
That blessed Christmas morn.
Go, Tell it on the Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell it on the Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.
When I am a seeker,
I seek both night and day;
I seek the Lord to help me,
And He shows me the way.
Go, Tell it on the Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell it on the Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.
He made me a watchman
Upon the city wall,
And if I am a Christian,
I am the least of all.
Go, Tell it on the Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell it on the Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.
About This Song
John Wesley Work, Jr., may not have originated the Negro spiritual “Go, Tell It on the Mountain,” but he can take credit for the fact that we still sing it every Christmas.
As the son of a church choir director, John grew up in Nashville loving music. Even though he earned his Master’s in Latin and went on to teach ancient Latin and Greek, his first love continued to be music, and he went on to become the first African-American collector of Negro spirituals. This proved to be a daunting task for Work because they were passed down orally, from plantation to plantation; very few were ever written down. But John proved up to the challenge, publishing his first book, New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, in Songs of the American Negro, six years later.
It was in this second volume that “Go, Tell It on the Mountain” first appeared. The original singers of the song fulfilled the same important task the angels gave the shepherds that first Christmas night outside of Bethlehem, proclaiming, “that Jesus Christ is born!” And thanks to John Wesley Work, so can we.
