IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR

 

Verse 1:

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

 

Verse 2:

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

 

Verse 3:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world hath 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

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

 

Verse 4:

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 splendours fling,

And all the world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.