Hymnal: The Christian Hymnal
Date: 1871
Compiler: Under direction of the Christian Hymn-Book Committee
Publisher/Printer: Bosworth Chase & Hall
First Line: It came upon the midnight clear
Topic: Christ/His Nativity
Writer: <no first name given> <no last name given>
Composer: L Mason
Meter: CM double
Tune: Wayne
Hymn Number: 73
Page Number: 030, click to see hymnal pages
LyicsIt came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold;
"Peace to the earth, good will to men,
From heaven's all-gracious King;"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.
Still thro' 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 heavenly wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds,
The blessed angels sing.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And men, at war with men, hear not
The love-song which they bring:
Oh! hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!
And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow;
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
Oh! rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!
For lo! the days are hast'ning on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendor fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.