Henry Beer wrote the following Christmas hymn. Beer was an elder of the Apostolic Christian Church, and according to the historian Perry A. Klopfenstein, “The Babe of Bethlehem” “is one of the most popular ‘Christmas carols’ in the Apostolic Christian Church.” Of the hymn Klopfenstein wrote, “As a florist, [Henry Beer] noted how worldly people put up nativity displays at Christmas. To them the displays apparently had little meaning, and there was no representation of the Cross of Christ. So he wrote a song about it.” (Marching to Zion: a History of the Apostolic Christian Church of America, 1847-1982, Fort Scott, KS: Sekan Printing Co., 1984, p. 475) “The Babe of Bethlehem” is No. 36 in Hymns of Faith, a Sunday School song book which Beer helped compile. The music is ascribed simply to “M. Y. R.”
The babe of Bethlehem,
Is worthy of our song and praise,
And stirs the hearts of men.
The fullness of God’s love divine,
Surrounds the Christ so mild,
Alas! how many only know
The Saviour as a child.
2. Our saving hope is all in vain,
If here our love should cease,
For in the man of Galilee
We find the gift of peace.
’Tis not the babe, but Christ the man,
Who walked in Galilee:
’Tis not the manger, but the cross,
That sets the spirit free.
3. Be not content this babe to know,
Nor stay at Bethlehem,
But go with Christ to Calvary’s brow,
Beyond Jerusalem.
’Tis there men learn to know the Christ,
For there he bore man’s sin;
Then open wide the door of heart
And let the Saviour in.
Henry Beer was born November 14, 1900 in Richland County, Ohio, the son of Simon Beer and Kathryn Meister. He married Alice Getz in 1924. Henry Beer died June 29, 1983, after over 50 years in ministry. Alice Beer died in 1985. She and Henry are buried at the Milford Cemetery in Milford, Kosciusko County, Indiana.
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