Christmas
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- Words:
- Edmund H. Sears, 1849. Music: 'Carol' Richard S. Willis, 1861.
- Setting:
- "Order of worship for the Reformed Church in the United States", 1866.
- Metre:
- 8 6 8 6 8 6 8 6
- 1It 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.
- 2Still 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 hov'ring wing,And ever over its Babel sounds The blessèd angels sing.
- 3Yet with the woes of sin and strifeThe world has suffered long;Beneath the angel strain have rolledTwo thousand years of wrong;And man, at war with man, hears notThe love‐ song which they bring;O hush the noise, ye men of strifeAnd hear the angels sing.
- 4And ye, beneath life's crushing load,Whose forms are bending low,Who toil along the climbing wayWith painful steps and slow,Look now! for glad and golden hoursCome swiftly on the wing.O rest beside the weary road,And hear the angels sing!
- 5For lo! the days are hast'ning on,By prophet‐ bards foretold,When with the ever circling yearsComes round the age of gold;When peace shall over all the earthIts ancient splendors fling,And the whole world send back the songWhich now the angels sing.
More sheet music
Scripture
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In the hymnals
- Written in 1849, the words are in 986 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
- The tune, Carol, is in 629 hymnals. The tune →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. Further sheet music is from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.