us plains
Breaks the first Christmas morn;
And brighter on Moriah's brow,
Crowned with her temple-spires,
Which first proclaim the new-born light,
Clothed with its orient fires.

The stanza omitted from the second Christmas hymn sounds the only minor
note heard in that otherwise hopeful and joyous lyric:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world hath 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!

Sears was a native of New England, having been born in Berkshire County,
Massachusetts, in 1810. He completed his theological course at Harvard
Divinity School in 1837, whereupon he entered the Unitarian Church,
serving as a pastor for nearly forty years.

Surprise has often been expressed that a Unitarian could write such
marvelous hymns on the nativity; but Sears was a Unitarian in name rather
than in fact. He leaned strongly toward Swedenborgian teachings, and
believed implicitly in the deity of Christ.

In addition to his hymns, he wrote a few works in prose. His books on
"Regeneration," "Foregleams of Immortality," and "The Fourth Gospel the
Heart of Christ" were widely read in his day. These have now been almost
entirely forgotten, but his two great hymns go singing through the years.
They are found in practically all standard hymn-books, although the final
stanza of "It came upon the midnight clear" is often altered. Sears died
in 1876.

Mrs. Stowe's Hymn Masterpiece

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee!

Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows,
The solemn hush of nature newly born;
Alone with Thee, in breathless adoration,
In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.

When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber,
Its closing eye looks up to Thee in prayer;
Sweet the repose beneath Thy wings o'ershading,
But sweeter still to wake and find Thee there.

So shall it be at last, in that bright morning,
When the soul waketh, and life's shadows flee;
O for that hour when fairer than the dawning
Shall rise the gl