A classic song written long ago, for Christmas Eve.
It’s also, if you listen to the lyrics carefully, a revolutionary song of Peace.
Which my version here juxtaposes it with the voices of every president of the modern era.

But the angels, and the great prophet Linus (Yes. From “A Charlie Brown Christmas”) get the final word.

On this night of peace and love, may be renew our commitment to be people of peace.

It came upon a 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 heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the 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 glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening 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 a Midnight Clear
by Edmund H. Sears 1849

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