The Army and Navy Hymnal/Hymns/It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

by Edmund Hamilton Sears(Carol by Richard Storrs Willis)

For other versions of this work, see It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

1. It came up -on the mid-night clear,
   That glo-rious song of old,
   From an - gels bend - ing near the earth,
   To touch their harps of gold:
   Peace on the earth,good-will to men,
   From heaven's all-gra-cious King ;
   The world in sol-emn still-ness lay
   To hear the an-gels sing.
   
2. Still through the clo-ven skies they come,
   With peace-ful wings un-furled;
   And still their heaven-ly mu-sic floats
   O'er all the wea-ry world :
   A-bove its sad and low-ly plains
   They bend on heaven-ly wing,
   And ev-er o'er its Ba-bel sounds
   The bless-ed an-gels sing.
   
3. And ye, be-neath life's crush-ing load,
   Whose forms are bend-ing low,
   Who toil a-long the climb-ing way,
   With pain-ful steps and slow,
   Look now, for glad and gold-en nours
   Come swift-ly on the wing ;
   O rest be-side the wea-ry road,
   And hear the an-gels sing !
   
4. For lo! the days are has-tening on,
   By proph-et-bards fore-told,
   When with the ev-er-cir-cling years
   Comes round the age of gold ;
   When peace shall over all the earth
   Its an-cient splen-dors fling,
   And the whole world give back the song
   Which now the an-gels sing.
   A-men