Go Tell It On The Mountain

NEEDTOBREATHE keep this African American spiritual's original structure intact, opening with its title command repeated twice before the news itself arrives: "go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain, Jesus Christ is born."

"The shepherds feared and trembled, when all above the earth rang out the angel chorus that held a Savior's birth" follows Luke's account closely, keeping the shepherds' fear alongside the announcement rather than skipping past it.

"Now in a lonely manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent our salvation that blessed this Christmas morn" moves from the shepherds' story to the theological point directly, and the closing run of "hallelujah" repetitions functions less like a bridge and more like the song running out of ways to say the same thing. "He's the savior of the world" lands as the plainest possible statement after all the imagery that came before it.