Go Tell It On The Mountain

Brandon Heath's reading of this spiritual keeps its familiar shepherd's-eye opening: "while shepherds kept their watching over silent flocks by night, behold throughout the heavens there shone a holy light."

An unusual middle verse shifts the song into first person, less common in most recordings of this carol: "when I am a seeker, I sought both night and day, I ask the Lord to help me, and He shows me the way... He made me a watchman upon the city wall, and if I am a Christian, I am the least of all." The song briefly becomes personal testimony before returning to the nativity scene.

"For God so loved the people, that He lowered His own hand" paraphrases John's most quoted verse almost directly, and "down in a lowly manger, our humble Christ was born, and God send us salvation that blessed Christmas morn" closes the carol on the same plain announcement it opened with — good news meant to be told, not kept.