Beneath a string of 500-watt bulbs the chorus sang into a microphone. Perhaps it was natural that they should begin with the familiar and beloved carol written by Bishop Phillip Brooks: “O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie!” Possibly some who listened made the words their heart prayer as the singers rendered the words: “O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray; Cast out our sin, and enter in, Be born in us today!” Other carols were rendered, and then the singers concluded with: “Silent night, holy night.” The songs of the glorious holiday season in a year that began in war and ended in peace reminded the men of home and family. One of the sailors remarked quietly to another: “I shall be home this Christmas for the first time in four years.” Christmastide Song of Blind Singers At the Christmas season before the second World War a sale and entertainment were held in London under the auspices of the Greater London Fund for the Blind. Among the attractive features of the program during the afternoon and the evening was the rendering of Christmas carols by a company of blind singers. A London periodical, commenting on this part of the program, said that it was “especially impressive” when the chorus rendered the peculiarly appropriate hymn of Bishop Reginald Heber: “Brightest and best of the sons of the morning, _Dawn on our darkness_ and lend us Thine aid; Star of the East, the horizon adorning, Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.” Blind though they were, the singers were conscious of the fact that Christ was the “Light of the world.” This hymn was first published in 1811. Several other very popular hymns were written by the same author. Following his training at Oxford University, he became rector at Hodnet, and, later, Missionary Bishop of Calcutta, where this “man of learning and piety” lived only three years. During this short period, however, he had the great satisfaction of hearing this and another of his hymns (“The Son of God Goes Forth to War”) sung better than he “had ever heard them sung in a church before.” This was on the occasion of the dedication of a church at Meerut, India, where in a remote situation, in sight of the Himalaya Mountains, he found an excellent organ in what he described as “one of the earliest, the largest and handsomest churches in India.” The blind singers of London chose well when they decided to sing the hymn of this consecrated man. Not Too Late to Hear the Christmas Music