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.

But with the woes of sin and strife
          The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have 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!

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 the hastening on
          By prophet-bards foretold,
When the ever-circling years
          Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
          Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
          Which now the angels sing.