The text “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” written by Unitarian minister Edward Sears, included haunting verses about war and social inequity. Nowadays, there are several versions of the hymn, as different denominations (including the LDS church) have altered the words in one form or other. The original words remain well worth reading (and singing) this Christmas season:<\/p>\n
It came upon the midnight clear,
\nThat glorious song of old,
\nFrom angels bending near the earth,
\nTo touch their harps of gold;
\n\u201cPeace on the earth, good will to men,
\nFrom Heaven\u2019s all gracious King.\u201d
\nThe world in solemn stillness lay,
\nTo hear the angels sing.<\/p>\n
Still through the cloven skies they come
\nWith peaceful wings unfurled,
\nAnd still their heavenly music floats
\nO\u2019er all the weary world;
\nAbove its sad and lowly plains,
\nThey bend on hovering wing,
\nAnd ever over its Babel sounds
\nThe blessed angels sing.<\/p>\n
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
\nThe world has suffered long;
\nBeneath the angel strain have rolled
\nTwo thousand years of wrong;
\nAnd man, at war with man, hears not
\nThe love-song which they bring;
\nO hush the noise, ye men of strife
\nAnd hear the angels sing.<\/p>\n
And ye, beneath life\u2019s crushing load,
\nWhose forms are bending low,
\nWho toil along the climbing way
\nWith painful steps and slow,
\nLook now! for glad and golden hours
\nCome swiftly on the wing.
\nO rest beside the weary road,
\nAnd hear the angels sing!<\/p>\n
For lo! the days are hastening on,
\nBy prophet bards foretold,
\nWhen with the ever circling years
\nComes round the age of gold;
\nWhen peace shall over all the earth
\nIts ancient splendors fling,
\nAnd the whole world send back the song
\nWhich now the angels sing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The text “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” written by Unitarian minister Edward Sears, included haunting verses about war and social inequity. Nowadays, there are several versions of the hymn, as different denominations (including the LDS church) have altered the words in one form or other. The original words remain well worth reading (and singing) this Christmas season:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-december"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10666,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10665\/revisions\/10666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}