Do you worship the Babe in the manger,
But reject the Christ of the Cross?
Your redemption comes not by the manger,
But the death of Christ on the Cross.
If you worship the Babe in the manger,
But ignore the blood of God’s Son,
To you Christ is only a stranger,
Til you trust the work He has done.
The Babe in the manger was God’s only Son,
Who came to the world to die.
The Babe in the manger could never have done
The work of His God on high.
The Babe left the manger and went to the Cross
To pay the wages of sin.
Your way of forgiveness is not by the Babe,
But the Christ who died for your sin.
– W. S. and Mildred Dillon
Updated to add: Many people have asked me for the music to this, but I only knew it as a poem rather than a song. However, one reader e-mailed me to say it was in a book called SONGS YOU LOVE, Volume 6, published 1961, an old hymnal that was used in the “Back to the Bible” Broadcasts. Another commenter below told us that there is a link with a midi file and sheet music here.
12 Comments
December 24, 2006 at 3:00 am
What a special poem. Thanks for this post. Merry Christmas!
December 28, 2006 at 8:55 pm
The poem “The Babe in the Manger” is just what I have been looking for. Do you know where I could get the music for it? Many years ago when I was a teen my friends sang in a group and this was one of the song they sang.
December 28, 2006 at 9:44 pm
Hi Sally,
I’m so sorry, no, I don’t know where music could be found for it. I just did a Google search both for the hymn and the authors and couldn’t find anything, at least within the first few pages of results. I didn’t even know it was a hymn until a few years ago. I had seen it about 20-some years ago and just thought it was a poem. Hope you can find it!
December 31, 2006 at 11:23 pm
Hi,
I woke this morning with this song in my mind. It was one of my favoriite songs in my teenage years. We are having our family Christmas tomorrow with our children and 15 grandchildren. I looked through my songbooks but was unable to find it. I remember the music but was unsure of some of the words so I was so excited to find it on my google search. If there was a way of singing it to you I would but I don’t know how to do that on the computer. Thank you for posting it!
April 10, 2007 at 9:07 am
http://www.a-voice.org/songbook/babmgr.htm is the site where you can listen to a midi, and the shet music os there. It appears to have been arranged by PF Becker, and I notice on your site the names at the bottom of the poem are WS and Mildren Dillon. Can anyone tell me if they are the original composers of the poem please? Tnank you! Regards
Ingrid
April 17, 2007 at 5:01 pm
I think so — those are the names I found when I searched for it.
Thanks for visiting and for the midi link!
November 26, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I am very interested in this article about this poem. I am actually looking for the music for our school Christmas program. I went on the website listed above – “a voice etc.”, but it would not let me print the entire 3 pages. Does anyone out there know of anywhere else I could get the music.
Thanks for your help.
December 6, 2007 at 12:30 pm
“I went on the website listed above – “a voice etc.”, but it would not let me print the entire 3 pages. Does anyone out there know of anywhere else I could get the music.”
Jane -
I was able to go the the above listed site and print all the music. The start of the second page is at the small number 2 four lines down. I was able to print the second page by clicking on the portion below the number 2 and saving it to my computer and then printing.
Hope this helps!
December 14, 2007 at 11:09 am
Thanks for your help Steph. The person responsible for the music in our Christmas program actually just copieed it by hand before I found your reply. Thanks anyway for the suggestion. I’ll remember that in the future. Have a very Blessed Christmas.
March 4, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Praise God!!! I finally found the words to Babe in the Manger now all i have to do is find the music. I’ll try all the areas you suggested. the midi file wouldn’t work for me so i’ll go the the bible bookstore and see if they can find anything. if someone does come up with a place to buy the music please email me.
Thank you so very much,
Marsha Kurth
December 17, 2008 at 12:34 pm
This song was written by W.S. Dillon and Mildred Dillon. It was copyrighted in 1954 by W.S. Dillon Publishing. The arrangement was made by P.F. Becker. I believe Bill Dillon died in May of 2000. I was unable to find W.S. Dillon Publishing on the internet. It is possible that it went out of business when he passed away. This music is not covered for copying under the CCLI license. But, since the copyright holder is no longer in business, …
January 5, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I believe Joan Pinkston also did an arrangement of this for SoundForth, thru BJU press.