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.
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 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.
(E. Sears. Source)
Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U_Dzovu1XA
This one is something of a favourite of mine. (And that’s despite the alto part becoming almost unsingably low when people insist on changing the key.) The lyrics are by another American minister, Edward Sears, and there is more than one tune but the most familiar to UK singers will be the arrangement ‘Noel’ by Arthur Sullivan. As someone who is something of a geek about Gilbert & Sullivan operettas I can say that it’s a very Sullivany arrangement.
There are a lot of similarities with ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ but instead of light, there is song, the song of the angels bringing news of “peace on the earth, goodwill to [all]” because of Jesus’ birth. Once again the earth is in ‘solemn stillness’, unaware of the miracle that has just happened. The author sees this song, this good news, as reverberating down the centuries, a promise to those who choose to listen that there can and will be better times- that there is hope, hope for now and for the future.
The world is described as “weary”, “sad and lowly” with the “woes of sin and strife” with “two thousand years of wrong” almost drowning out the song. “Man at war with man” probably doesn’t just mean literal war, but all the ways humans abuse and hurt other humans, from individual violence and abuse to systemic racism and unfair economic systems. All of these are about selfishness, the opposite of giving and receiving love, so no wonder we ignore the ‘love-song’ of the angels. But however bad things might be, if we listen, there is still hope- because of Christmas and the baby born in Bethlehem.
Verse 4 is often dropped from hymn books and recordings, presumably because it picks up on what’s in other verses rather than adding much new, apart from some evocative description of how hard it can feel just to keep going through life ("toil along the climbing way...painful steps and slow"). But perhaps there’s something to be gained from the last couple of lines-
“O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!”
Rest is something we tend to struggle with as a society that considers busyness to be a sign of moral worth. Rest isn’t necessarily the same as doing nothing (though it could be), but of doing things which refresh you (that might even be singing carols!). In this year when we’ve been confined to our homes a lot more we might think the last thing we need is more rest, but actually- how much of what you’ve done has refreshed you, made you more able to face the world? It's actually hard to rest in the kind of scenario we've been in this year, so don't feel bad if you feel you need more rest. The bible, which has a surprising amount to say about rest, also describes it as refreshing your relationship with God, which ties in well with this carol’s call to focus on the angel’s song to help carry us the ‘crushing load’. I hope you are able to get some rest in the next week or two.
A few years back friends, or at least friends of friends, used to organise an annual carol singing event for charity in York. Unfortunately, were a number of spelling mistakes in the sheet music we used, which means I can never sing the last verse without remembering that instead of the ‘age of gold’, the future was going to bring the ‘age of golf’. Not, to my mind, quite the age of peace and harmony that the final verse prophecies, where the love- song of the angels will win out over the noise of selfishness. Not that humanity is passive in this transformation- the whole world will “give back the song” as we join with the angels in praise and love-song.
So once again we’re left hoping,, with the song to sustain us- hope for a better world we can work for now, and hope for an even better one in the future.
With golf. Maybe.
