Clear Midnights

(It Came Upon A Midnight Clear)


Hymn of the Day

"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear"

Author: Edmund Hamilton Sears
Based on Luke 2:13

"And suddenly there was with the angel

a multitude of the heavenly host praising God ... "

It came upon the midnight clear

That glorious song of old,

Of 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.

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.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has 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

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 sad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road
To hear the angels sing!


For lo! The days are hasten'ing on
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Her ancient splendors fling
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Meditation ~ "Clear Midnights!"

This very popular Christmas hymn was written in 1849 by a Unitarian Minister named Edmund Hamilton Sears. He was born at Sandisfield, Massachusetts, April 6, 1810, and spent most of his life in the ministry (27 years at Wayland, MA. For some twelve years of his life, however, he was associated with the Rev. Rufus Ellis in the editorial work of the monthly "Religious Magazine", and it was there that most of his work was published. His lineage dates back to Colonial Days as he was a descendant of Richard Sears, a Hollander who joined the Plymouth Colony in 1630.

After graduating from Union College in New York, Edmund Sears began to study law. A call to the ministry was more interesting to him than his law studies, so he entered Harvard Divinity School. After Harvard, he served several small pastorates in the central part of Massachusetts.

He wrote and published numerous works, but only two hymns - - -
both of them intended for Christmas. The first one was entitled
"Calm on The Listening Ear of Night" and is actually very similar, textually, to "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.

"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is one Christmas hymn that should be sung year round because it bears a message of social service that is both timeless and seasonless. It is just as true that no Christmas season would be complete without the singing of this well-beloved carol/hymn. Since its writing in 1849, scarcely a hymnal anywhere has been published that does "NOT" include it. It was one of the first carols ever written by an American writer. It is something of a surprise to find such a text written by a Unitarian. It was often said of Sears that he was more of a Unitarian by name than by conviction. Being a Unitarian Minister did not keep him from believing in the divinity of Christ or from preaching it from his pulpit.

This hymn is generally considered to be one of the finest hymn/carols to emphasize the social implications of the angels' message - - - that of achieving peace and good will toward our fellowmen in the midst of social difficulty. The writing of Midnight Clear occurred at a time in American history of great unrest and strained peace. In New England the Industrial Revolution was causing all sorts of social upheaval. It was the year of the California Gold Rush and all that attended that. It is to these that the hymn refers - - - those "beneath life's crushing load". The hymn text urges them (and us who have followed them) to listen once again to the singing of the angels. It is a distinctly American trait, by the way, to write hymns that stress this social message of Christmas - this "peace on earth, good will to men". Carols from England and other parts of Europe reflect no such concern.

The final verse is the great verse of hopeful optimism, speaking as it does of that golden age - - - 'when peace shall over all the earth, its ancient splendors fling, and the whole world gives back the song, which now the angels sing." The peace of Christmas, proclaimed by the heavenly chorus of angels, is one of God's greatest gifts to mankind. In II Corinthians Chapter 5, verse 19, we read that "God was reconciling the world unto Himself". This message of reconciliation involves us on three different levels: (1)Peace with God, (2) Peace with our fellowmen; and (3) Peace within ourselves. It is this wonderful and blessed concept that Edmund Sears wanted to emphasize in this unusual carol.

Just as the angelic announcement of peace was given at a time of much turmoil caused by the iron-fisted rule of the Roman Empire, and just as this hymn was written during a time of serious social turmoil in American society, so today does God's message of peace come despite all of life's crushing load and stormy circumstances. The hymn is distinguished by the omissions - the things it does not say . . . no mention, for instance, of Christ the newborn King . . . no elements of the scriptural account of the birth of Jesus from Matthew or Luke.

One of the things I am thinking about tonight as I ponder the words of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is how many things that seem so dark - - - so "midnightish" - - - can be transformed into the joyous or the miraculous. We fear the darkness of life - - - the midnight hours - - - those hours just before dawn that are said to be the darkest of all.

So many things constitute midnight hours for us. We abhor the darkness. We are often frightened by the darkness. When I had surgery in 1998, I kept my best friend on the phone almost ALL night the night before my surgery. It was a dark time for me and I was terribly frightened. Morning "did" come, though, and life and light "won" for me. It's so often that the darkness is something terribly frightening. We run from it, and yet, there are those things that "come upon a midnight clear" that are beautiful. The words to another wonderful hymn come to mind here. In the refrain to "We've a Story to Tell to the Nations", we find the words . . . "and the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday light . . ."

Two personal examples come quickly to my mind. A few years ago, Terry and I were on the way back from Helen, GA, on a very dark, moonless, completely gorgeous night. The stars appeared to be close enough to touch. We pulled off the road and stopped to look at them, and just observe the beauty. Things in the night that might have been fearsome on another occasion were awesome in their beauty this night. We had only to stop and take the time to see what was actually in the darkness.

Secondly, December brings with it an annual major meteor shower. A few years back, Terry and I were eagerly anticipating the "show" only to be presented with rain and fog on the night of the "peak" showers, and it was all but impossible to observe anything at all of the meteor shower. I was quite disappointed when I went to bed, but the next night was clear, with lots of stars in the sky. On the way home from eating dinner, Terry and I went out to a road in our neighborhood that has no street lights, etc., and found a place to stop away from traffic. We watched and waited as our eyes adjusted to the darkness.

We were a bit too early for the meteors to be showing up, I suppose, 

but the night was gorgeous. We watched for awhile, and then left, thinking we might come back after midnight when they are supposed to be more active. Something to look forward to on a clear night at midnight?? On the way to the spot we had chosen to do our sky-watching and star-gazing, we saw a beautiful Stag Deer with a six-point rack of antlers cross the road in the headlights of the car. Here again was something beautiful to come out of the darkness of the night. Something unexpected, and to us, at least, something wonderful and awe-inspiring.

What other wonders await us in the midnight hour? During those times of darkness in our lives, what might be found in the midnight hour if we could but allow ourselves to tune in to it and to look for the beautiful that might be found?  

 

What might we find in those times when life is at its darkest if we can push ourselves to look the midnight square in the face and really find what's there?All they had to do to find that wondrous joy was to be willing to go looking for it. Isn't that all we have to do as well? Be willing to go look for the wondrous things that can come to bring light and life to us even in our darkness? Maybe even because of our darkness? 

 

What I have found in some of the experiences I have had the past few years, as I struggled with my health and had many of those midnight
hours is that the darkness may be exactly as it appears to be - - -
full of danger and reasons to fear it, but it may contain much 

more than that.

It is my job to look at what is actually there before I curse the darkness. Someone has said, you know, that "It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." Maybe what I am saying is that I have learned to look for those candles that have been lit for me in my darkness before I curse that darkness. It's not possible to observe the beauty of a meteor shower in the daytime, and the deer and other creatures of God's kingdom don't as often come out in the daytime in the same way as they do at night. Some beauty may just possibly require the nighttime to display

itself in its best light.

Prayer - Our Father, we are reminded of the words of this hymn and others, including one great Southern Gospel hymn, written by Mosie Lister, She wrote, and we feel, "In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my eyes . . ." We hide, Father, from Thee and from the darkness of the midnight hours of our life. We pray that You will grant us greater understanding of the midnight, and teach us to look beyond the obvious, and the things that frighten us, for the blessings that may be there. We thank you for your love for us, and for your steadfastness to us in redeeming us and our darkness over and over again. Bless us so that we may in turn be a blessing to others in the name of the Light of the World, your Son, Jesus Christ, who came to bring everlasting Light into the darkness of our world, for we ask it in His holy name, believing that even as we ask, it has been accomplished. Amen ~

Activity ~ Call a nursing home and get the names of ten people who don't often get mail. Send each one a beautiful card, signed "From, Santa!"