It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is a very familiar carol. Most of us can probably sing the first verse from memory, and maybe the second and last. However, the third and fourth often get passed over. 

This arrangement by Robert Rice, as sung by The King's Singers, not only includes the middle stanzas, but even accentuates them. And because Rice has used a tune less familiar to me, I've been hearing it with fresh ears, so to speak. The fourth verse has been especially meaningful to me this year. The last few years have felt like a "weary road."  This carol helps us remember/gives us permission, to rest, listen, and hope!

It came upon the 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.

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.

To listen click: https://youtu.be/ftiff8AjREQ