Phillips Brooks was born in Boston on December 13, 1835. One of six sons, he was born into some privilege as far as wealth was concerned. But the greater wealth in his family was a deep and abiding faith in the Lord. Six sons were born to the Brooks family and four of them, including Philip, went into the ministry.

         At the age of 15, young Phillips entered Harvard College. This was a time when Harvard was a theological school, not anything like the school of today. Upon graduation from Harvard, he enrolled in the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. For the first time in his life, he came face to face with slavery. Growing up and at Harvard, slavery was known of, but it was an abstract. But there in Virginia it became a huge burden on his soul. He graduated in 1859 with a Doctor of Divinity degree (which at the time was very respected) and he began to preach as opportunity offered. In 1862 he became the pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Philadelphia. He had become such an outspoken enemy of slavery and such a dynamic preacher (at a time when sermons ran about an hour and a half on average) that, at the young age of 27, was already known throughout the country. His sermons were published in newspapers everywhere. Take a moment to think about that. Someone had to write the entire sermon down and then take it to the telegraph office. There, the telegraph operator had to send it out by Morris Code, word for word to telegraph offices all across the land, even into the South. On the receiving end another operator had to decipher the code, word for word, and write it down. Then it was taken to the newspaper where the type was set by hand and the newspaper was printed, including the sermon. So hungry were people for God’s Word. Now, when technology has made world wide access to any given preacher an instantaneous thing, very few listen.

         At any rate, given his position in Philadelphia, the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, made it a practice to ask Brooks to board a train and come to the capital and give the President Spiritual advice and comfort. It was said that Lincoln liked Brooks because, since the preacher stood six foot four, he could look the President in the eye. Lincoln instinctively liked Brooks and relied on him as his Spiritual advisor. As the story goes, Brooks was sitting up with Lincoln late into the evening as the Civil War was drawing to a close, and it was that night that Brooks led the President to accept Christ as Savior. When Lincoln was killed, it was Brooks who led the State funeral for the fallen President in Washington DC.

         Brooks was not yet thirty years old, but he was famous all across America. He was a great bear of a man and the picture of health. But he had been so involved with ministry in a truly dynamic way that in 1865 he was tired. Still mourning the death of the President, whom he considered a great man in his own right and also a great friend, his congregation implored him to take a year and travel abroad. It sounds odd to us now, but then it was quite common. Most people in that situation would opt to go to Europe. Brooks, however, wanted to go to the Holy Land. Most of his year would be spent aboard ship but, again, this was not unusual for the time. He wrote at that time that all he had ever hoped to be was a pastor of a church. Now, wonder of wonders, he would have the opportunity to walk the paths of Jesus.

         This became his goal, to walk the places Jesus had walked. December 24, 1865 found him in the small town of Bethlehem. At midnight the bells of the small Christian churches in the town began to ring out. He was standing outside of the Church of the Nativity and he listened. He wrote a letter to his congregation and told them that he closed his eyes and could imagine all of them together the previous Christmas Eve. In his mind, the bells in Bethlehem were playing out the glorious songs he had grown up with that had lifted his spirit as a child and had directed him toward Christ. A legend has engulfed Brooks by religious writers, much as it does for Roman Catholic ‘saints.’ It has been written that he conducted the worship service that night at the Church of the Nativity, actually standing in the cave that they hold to be the birth place. But his fame did not stretch that far and the Church of the Nativity is a Roman Catholic church. Brooks was not Roman Catholic, therefore he would not be permitted. In fact, it was his position as an Episcopal minister, and therefore, a minister of the Church of England, that prompted him to stand outside. I find it interesting and inspiring that on that holy night in Bethlehem, at midnight, his thoughts were with his beloved congregation.

         In time his year abroad was up. He returned to a church that welcomed him with much fanfare and he returned to a country that was healing. He had returned home.

         Brooks contemplated marriage, but never married. As the stirrings of his calling began to rise up within him, he had felt that he would be too busy as an itinerant preacher to be able to spend time with his wife. When he actually became a nationally known minister rather than a ‘lowly’ itinerant, he realized that he really wouldn’t have the time to be fair to a wife. And yet, he loved children. While at the church in Philadelphia he even taught a Sunday School class. It was to this class of children that he wrote a poem in 1867 to try and convey his wonder and the depth of feeling he had that night in Bethlehem. A man who had helped to hold the country together Spiritually, who had prayed with a President, who was known nationwide and had walked the path of Jesus, wrote these words for the children; 

1.    O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

2.    For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wond’ring love.
O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth!

3.    How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is giv’n;
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His Heav’n.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

4.    Where children pure and happy pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to Thee, Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching and faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.

5.    O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
Oh, come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!

   Phillips Brooks was removed as a pastor and was made a Bishop of the Episcopal church at the age of 56, quite young for such an honor. He was installed as Bishop of the Boston area, which was his hometown. But perhaps because he was no longer doing what he loved to do, that is, pastoring, he passed away seven months later. There is, however, an enduring legacy. It may be that you have whispered the song “O Little Town of Bethlehem” to your child to relax them as Christmas nears, or in church looked over at your child with love as the congregation sings out the words to the great song. That’s OK. It was written for children by one of America’s greatest men of God.