It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From Angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold!
Peace on the earth good will to men,
From Heaven's all gracious King!
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats,
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing.
And ever o'er its Babel sounds,
The blessed angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife,
The world hath suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain hath rolled,
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not,
The love song which they bring:
Oh hush the noise ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Shall come the Age of Gold;
When peace shall over all the earth,
Its ancient splendors fling,
And all the world give back the song,
Which now the angels sing.

It came upon a Midnight Clear was written by Edmund Sears and composer Richard Willis, a carol that speaks of angels and the nativity.  It's a popular nativity hymn sung every Christmas season.  The lyrics were written by Edmund H. Sears (1810-1876), and the tune was composed by Richard S. Willis (1819-1900).  The song is all about hope and peace brought by the angels as a message.

One of the first Christian hymns written by an American writer and published in the "Christian Register" in 1849, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" emphasizes the social implications of the angels' message: achieving peace and good will toward our fellowmen in the midst of social difficulty.  The writing of this text occurred in a period in our country where there was much unrest, especially the foreboding of the tensions between the Northern and the Southern States, social upheaval due to industrial revolution, and the time of the "Forty-niner" gold rush.  The hymn text was considered to have addressed these difficulties, urging folks to listen once again to the angels singing.  The final stanza is a verse of hopeful optimism: "When peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling, and the whole world gives back the song, which now the angels sing." 

Edmund Sears, wrote a number of publications, but authored only two hymn texts, intended for the Christmas season.  His first carol hymn was written while a student in Harvard Divinity School, was "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night."  This hymn is also included in various hymnals today, but it's not as popular as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" written 15 years later. 

(Suite101.com) 

Source:

101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications (1982)