Sixteen years elapsed, and then at Christmas time in 1850 the Christian world was delighted to find in the “Christian Register” another lyric, “It came upon the midnight clear,” which many believe is superior to the earlier hymn. The language of this hymn is so surpassingly lovely and its movement so rhythmical, it fairly sings itself.
There is, in fact, a close resemblance between the two hymns, and yet they are different. While the earlier hymn is largely descriptive, the later one is characterized by a note of joyous optimism and triumphant faith. In Sears’ “Sermons and Songs” he published the one at the beginning, and the other at the close, of a sermon for Christmas Eve on 1 Tim. 2:6.
Each of the two hymns had five stanzas in its original form. The fourth stanza of the older hymn is usually omitted. It reads:
Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!
The Saviour now is born;
More bright on Bethlehem’s joyous plains
Breaks the first Christmas morn;
And brighter on Moriah’s brow,
Crowned with her temple-spires,
Which first proclaim the new-born light,