Edmund Hamilton Sears was an American Unitarian parish minister and author who wrote a number of theological works influencing 19th-century liberal Protestants. Today, Sears is primarily known as the man who penned the words to "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" in 1849. It has been sung to two tunes, one by Richard Storrs Willis and another adapted by Arthur Sullivan from a traditional English air.
Sears originally wrote the song as a melancholy reflection on his times while a minister in Wayland, Massachusetts, US. However, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" has since become a popular Christmas carol. Wikipedia
Christmas Song, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
The Angels' Song ("It Came Upon A Midnight Clear", 1849).
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 177.
The Angels' Song ("It Came Upon A Midnight Clear", 1849).
