Dec 2, 2022
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
I am sometimes asked why I like Christmas so much. The subtext of the question highlights the duality of the season. The Christmas season is supposed to be filled with Joy. But for many, the holiday season is one of the hardest and most depressing of the year.
The Christmas season and the perceived or actual obligation accompanying it can be taxing. I also wonder why I find such joy in the season. I was recently reading “The Christmas Carol,” and near the end of the book, Bob Cratchit sits by his son’s bed with the lifeless body of Tiny Tim.
“I wish you could have gone. It would have done you good to see how green a place it is. But you’ll see it often. I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child!” cried Bob. “My little child!”
He broke down all at once. He couldn’t help it. If he could have helped it, he and his child would have been farther apart perhaps than they were. He left the room and went upstairs into the room above, which was lighted cheerfully, and hung with Christmas. There was a chair set close beside the child, and there were signs of some one having been there, lately. Poor Bob sat down in it, and when he had thought a little and composed himself, he kissed the little face. “
(Bob Cratchit, A Christmas Carol, Stave 4, Dickens)
A few minutes later, he walks down, talks to his wife, and tells her about an exchange he had earlier in the day with Mr. Scrooge’s nephew. He said he was comforted by Fred’s desire to help in any way he could.
“If I can be of service to you in anyway “ Fred said while giving Bob his card “that’s where I live. Pray come to me.’“
The book never mentioned whether Bob availed himself of Fred’s offer, but it was poignant that the proposal comforted him.
To one degree or another, every Christmas carries a burden along with the fun and magic. But if we are honest with ourselves, the most memorable Christmases revolve around giving or receiving service.
On Christmas Eve circa 1849, a small group of parishioners gathered at the home of Reverend Edmund Hamilton Sears to celebrate the holiday. According to some account, this was the first time anyone would sing Reverends Sear’s poem “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” set to music. This hymn is different than many other Christmas Carols because it never mentions the Christ-Child but focuses primarily on the angels singing.
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, goodwill to men
From heav’n’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.
Sears wrote The Angels Song, or as we now know it, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, that same year, but no one knows what tune they sang. It would be another ten years before the Poem would be married to the tune we often use in the United States. That tune is called Carol and was written by Richard Storrs Willis, who studied music with Felix Mendelssohn in Germany.
Still thru the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heav’nly music floats
O’er all the weary world.
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hov’ring wing,
And ever o’er its babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.
Sears, a Unitarian minister, wrote the lyrics while recovering from a devastating illness and months of profound depression. He also saw the aftermath of the Mexican War and the deeply concerning issue of slavery. In addition, he read about revolutions and wars abroad, which inspired him to write this song focusing on the angels’ message.
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear is as relevant today as it ever has been. The strife of war and the modern-day race, culture, and ideology divisions plague our society.
Out of all of the songs, the angels could have performed. They sang:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
(Luke 2:14)
A line from my book, Tales of a Paperboy, brings together the song of the angels and us, the mortals to whom they sang. It is a reminder that we must be an active part of the angel’s message.
“We are just a mortal form of angel when we serve each other.”
(Tales of a Paperboy — A Christmas Story)
There is something important about the exchange of love from one soul to another.
One of the rarely sung verses of this song says:
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.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!
Their song did not outline the coming acts of Christ, his death or resurrection, nor His teachings. They did not sing of what came before. They only sang of God’s divinity and peace and goodwill.
But that is just why I love Christmas so much. The message of Christmas is the message of the angels singing. If we follow Christ’s example of service, we become one of His angels and find peace.
For lo! the days are hast’ning on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heav’n and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
