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 all from heaven's
Most 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 lonely
Plains they bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er it's Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the heavenly hymn
Have rolled two thousand
Years of wrong;
And we at war and
Earth hear not the tidings
That they bring;
O hush the noise and cease the strife
And hear the angels sing.
And you, 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;
O rest beside the weary world
And hear the angels sing.
