Piano Demo
0:00
Hymnal Number
773Resource Type:
Keys included:
Bb
About this Hymn
A man who goes between two hostile armies and negotiates a peace represents very dimly and remotely the Divine Mediation in Jesus Christ. On the Divine side, this does not represent the fact at all. For God has no hostility towards his creatures; the enmity is all on one side, and the fearful chasm and antagonism between the Divine nature and human nature do not require any treaty-making or going between, that God may understand us, and be made placable towards us. . . . He is peace-maker in that he opens between both the streams and courses through which the Divine Peace flows to man and reconciles him, so to say, under the omnipotence of the Divine Love. – Edmund H. Sears
Lyrics
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 heav'n'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 heav'nly music floats o'er all the weary world: above its sad and lowly pains they bend on hov'ring wing, and ever o'er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing.
Verse 3
Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long; beneath the heav'nly strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong; and man, at war with man, hears not the tidings which they bring; oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.
Verse 4
O 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!
Verse 5
For lo! the days are hast'ning on, by prophet bards foretold, when with 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.
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 heav'n'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 heav'nly music floats o'er all the weary world: above its sad and lowly pains they bend on hov'ring wing, and ever o'er its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing.
Verse 3
Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long; beneath the heav'nly strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong; and man, at war with man, hears not the tidings which they bring; oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.
Verse 4
O 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!
Verse 5
For lo! the days are hast'ning on, by prophet bards foretold, when with 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.
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Attribution & Copyright
Words: Edmund H. Sears, 1849
Music: Richard Storrs Willis, 1850, rev. 1861
Music: Richard Storrs Willis, 1850, rev. 1861