Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810 - 1876)

Born 6 Apr 1810 in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, USA

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Descendants

Died 14 Jan 1876 at age 65 in Weston, Massachusetts. USA

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Biography

Edmund Hamilton Sears (April 6, 1810 – January 14, 1876) was an American Unitarian parish minister and author who wrote a number of theological works influencing 19th century liberal Protestants. Sears is known today primarily as the man who penned the words to It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in 1849.

Born on April 6, 1810, the youngest of three sons of Joseph and Lucy (Smith) Sears

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Sears.see at Wikipedia.org

• "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHY2-PGZ : 13 July 2016), Edmund Hamilton Sears, 16 Jan 1876; citing Death, Weston, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, , town clerk offices, Massachusetts;

FHL microfilm 2,109,248.

• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVVQ-V1S4 : 13 December 2015), Edmund Hamilton Sears, 1876; Burial, Weston, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States of America, Linwood Cemetery; citing record ID 7426663, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

• "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NW38-CVJ : 10 December 2014), Edmund H. Sears in entry for Ellen Bacon, 24 Apr 1897; citing Weston, Massachusetts, v 473 p 447, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 961,522.

• "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N44N-38N : 10 December 2014), Edmund H Sears in entry for Francis Bacon Sears, 26 Aug 1914; citing Weston, Massachusetts, 311, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 2,406,038.

• "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDQS-WFR : 17 October 2014), Edmund H Sears, Massachusetts, United States; citing p. 31, family 239, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 552,132.

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDSQ-J6N : 9 November 2014), Edmund H Sears, Wayland, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States; citing family 110, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• May, Samuel. The Descendants of Richard Sares (Sears) of Yarmouth, Mass., 1638-1888 Page 369 (Joel Munsell's Sons, 1890) No 1245, Rev Edmund H Sears was graduated at Union Coll. in 1834, and at Cambridge Theo. School in 1837; began to preach as a missionary at Toledo, OH, remaining nearly a year, - was ordained Pastor of 1st Church(Unitarian), Wayland, MA, 1839, installed as colleague of Dr Field, Pastor of the Unit. Church at Weston, MA, in May 1865, and succeeded him as Pastor in Nov 1869. He visited Europe in 1873, and was severely injured by the fall of a tree in his orchard in 1874. He was a man of singularly modest and retiring nature. His health had long been feeble, and he shrunk from personal display of any sort. But as a writer, as a preacher, and as a man, he has left a memory which will be long and lovingly cherished by all who knew him. A saintlier soul has rarely been enshrined in mortal frame. But for his early impaired health and enfeebled voice, he would have been deemed eloquent in utterance, no less than in style, for his delivery had every attractive and impressive quality, within the limited spaces in which he alone dared to seek a hearing. Those that knew him felt that his place was with the beloved apostle, in closest union and sympathy with his Divine Master. There was a sweet serenity of spirit in his whole demeanor,speech and character, which made him in every relation of life unspeakably dear. Simple, modest, unassuming, even diffident, he was the last person to make of set purpose any manifestation of piety; but a beauty of holiness so pure and radiant as his could not be kept under cover. All who came within its sphere felt profoundly the sanctity, purity and loveliness of its character. His style was the transcript of his thought and feeling. There was a view of high poetic inspiration, not only in those lyrics which are finding their place in the worship of Christian sanctuaries wherever the English tongue is spoken, but almost equally in his prose, which is never otherwise than rhythmical, glowing and fervent. Amongst other works of his were: lyrics to the Christmas song "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", "Regeneration," "Athanasia," "The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ,""Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life,""Christian Lyrics etc, and he edited, with Rev R Ellis, "The Monthly Religious Magazine." In 1857 he published an historical romance entitled "Pictures of the Olden Time," in connection with which he edited the "Sears Genealogy," from papers furnished him by Hon David Sears [5768] of Boston, but which have since been found to contain much erroneous inforamtion based upon legends incapable of proof. See ante, "English Ancestry."  !Sears In Memorium - 1898 Memorial of Little Katy ; At Sturgis Library, Barnstable, MA

• W J Burke and Will D Howe, Editors, American Authors and Books; 1640-1940; New York, Gramercy Publishing Co, 1943; pp 674-675; Book in Duncan Public Library, Duncan, OK; Unitarian clergyman, hymn writer. His best known hymns are "Calm on the listening ear of night," and "It came upon a Midnight clear."

• THE GOSPEL IN HYMNS; 1870; ; p 517; from Phebe Ann Glaze, N Hollywood, CA; Rev Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876) American Unitarian. SEARS was a humble clergyman who lives only in two Christmas hymns. Born in the Massachusetts Berkshires, educated at Union College and the Harvard Divinity School (1837), he spent most of his life as pastor at Wayland, MA. In addition to his preaching he did editorial work for twelve years on the Monthly Religious Magazine and wrote several volumes on religious subjects. His first hymn, written while a divinity student, was "Calm on the listening ear of night" - still frequently used. His second is found in all of our hymnals. "It came upon a midnight clear" [1846]. No Christmas is perfect without the singing of this hymn. It is one of the finest ever written, not only because of its melodious rendering of the Biblical story of angels and shepherds (stanza 1) but because it is one of the first to emphasize the social significance of the angel's message (st 2-5). In stanza 2 unrolls the never-ending procession of Christmas days. The remembered angels and their song are reminders that the world was not intended to be weary, its plains need not be sad and lonely, nor its sounds a Babel instead of a symphony. These angels are the very hope of man springing eternally in the human breast. Stanza 3 hints at the actuality rather than the ideal: the devastations, the slaughter, the hatreds, the vengeance, the struggle for power, the savage greed of men have drowned out the celestial music for two milleniums. As the poet was writing these lines his fellow citizens were killing Mexicans in order that they might enslave more Negroes, and the Civil War was looming over the horizon. Stanza 4 becomes more personal. It urges all who find the burden of life too heavy-victims of poverty, disease, social injustice-to listen awhile to the angelic reminder that Good Will is heaven's law of life and can yet heal all their wounds. Stanza 5 relieves the picture of human wrongs by reminding us that the song is still valid. Eternal in the human heart springs the hope, the passioante faith, that what men so desperately have longed for - that "Age of Gold"- will surely come to pass. "Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs" are all answering, "Yes!" It came upon the midnight clear, Tha glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth To touch their harps of gold: Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, From heav'n'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 heav'nly music floats O'er all the weary world Above its sad and lowly plains They bend on hov'ring 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! Fo 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 splendours fling, And te whole world send back the song Which now the angels sing.

• Biography and Genealogy Master Index, 2d ed, Gale Research, ISBN 0-8103-1094-5, p140; Alli, Alli SUP, AmAu, AmAu&B, ApCAB, BiDAmM, ChPo,-S1,-S2, DcAmAu, DcAmB, DcNAA, Drake, NatCAB 8, OhA&B, PoChrch, REnAL, TwCBDA, WebE&AL, WhAm HS

• Mayflower Index: No. 29,932 Edmund H; spouse Ellen Bacon; father Joseph

• MA death records Sears Edmund Hamilton Weston 1876 vol 284 p198 Death

• from tch.simplenet.com/bio/s/ehsears.htm (dead link now) 30 Sep 98 Edmund Hamilton Sears 1810-1876 -- Born: April 6, 1810, Sandisfield, Massachusetts. Sears attended Union College in Schenectady, New York, and Harvard Divinity School. He served at Unitarian churches in Wayland, Lancaster, and Weston, Massachusetts. He also helped edit the Monthly Religious Magazine. His works include: Regeneration (1854) Pictures of the Olden Time (1857) Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life (1875) Died: January 14, 1876, Weston, Massachusetts. Hymns: Calm on the Listening Ear of Night It Came upon the Midnight Clear ---- Wanted: Picture Place of burial If you can help with any of the "wanted" items, would you send us an e-mail? Thanks!

• Sears, Edmund Hamilton (6 Apr. 1810-16 Jan. 1876), clergyman, author, and hymn writer, was born in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, the son of Joseph Hamilton and Lucy Smith, farmers. A shy and fragile boy, Sears soon found that the harsh realities of agricultural life prevented him from regularly attending school. At sixteen he briefly enrolled for several months at Westfield (Massachusetts) Academy, and a few years later he met the entrance requirements for Union College in Schenectady, New York. A diligent student, he completed his bachelor's degree in three years, graduating in 1834. At an early age, Sears had shown an interest in poetry and writing sermons, and at Union his literary skills were recognized and encouraged. He helped edit the college newspaper and also won a prize for his verse. After graduating, Sears first began to read law in hopes of a legal career. An opportunity to teach at the Brattleboro (Vermont) Academy led him to study theology with Rev. Addison Brown, and Sears soon switched his vocational interests to the Christian ministry. He subsequently entered Harvard Divinity School and earned a theological degree in 1837. He then accepted an assignment with the American Unitarian Association and served two years as a missionary, preaching at various points near Toledo, Ohio. Upon returning to Massachusetts, he was invited to accept the pastorate of the Wayland Unitarian Church; there he was ordained on 20 February 1839. Later that year, Sears married Ellen Bacon of Barnstable, Massachusetts; they had three sons and a daughter. Sears's soft voice, shyness, and weak physical condition prevented him from serving larger and more active churches, and he preferred the peaceful and meditative pace that country parishes provided. He pastored the Unitarian society in Lancaster from 1841 to 1847, when poor health forced him to resign. After retiring to a small farm at Wayland, he regained sufficient strength to serve the Wayland parish again, ministering to it for the next seventeen years. Sears was proud of his New England heritage, which he traced to the Plymouth Colony in the 1630s. His genealogical research led to the publication of two works in 1857: Pictures of the Olden Time as Shown in the Fortunes of a Family of Pilgrims and Genealogies and Biographical Sketches of the Ancestry and Descendants of Richard Sears. He also wrote and published a local commemorative history, The Town of Wayland in the Civil War of 1861-1865. While pastoring the Wayland society, Sears became widely known throughout New England for his religious books, devotional verse, and editorial work (in association with Rufus Ellis) for the Unitarian periodical Monthly Religious Magazine (1851-1871). His sermons and other writings are marked with a richly devotional and mystical quality, as well as poetic grace and beauty. Among Unitarian leaders of his era, Sears was a "conservative" who held that Christianity was divinely inspired and that Christ (although not a member of the Trinity) was its divinely appointed author. Yet his piety was also influenced by the Platonic idealism of the Concord Transcendentalists and by the eighteenth-century Swedish scientist and religious visionary Emanuel Swedenborg. His Regeneration (1853), for example, which was written at the request of the American Unitarian Association, reflects Swedenborg's stages of spiritual growth; namely, confession, putting one's external life in order, and forming a new internal will. Athanasia; or, Foregleams of Immortality (1858), examines the nature of the soul and the afterlife and was praised by English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning for its deep spiritual insights. Sears's last pastorate was in Weston, a neighboring town, where he served from 1866 until his death. While in Weston he published his most popular work, The Fourth Gospel: The Heart of Christ (1872), which was reprinted several times. This work presented a rational life of Christ but also stressed the spiritual nature of the Resurrection, the importance of religious experience, and the mystical quality of John's gospel. Sears is best remembered, however, as a writer of poetry and hymns, reflected in his last two books, Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life (1875) and Life in Christ (1877). He may be the only American poet to write two Christmas carols that continue to be reprinted and frequently sung by Christians everywhere: "It Came upon a Midnight Clear" (1850) and "Calm, on the Listening Ears of Night" (c. 1834). An accidental fall from a tree in 1874 effectively ended his active pastoral work, although he continued to write. He died at his home in Weston.

• Basic biographical information on Sears may be found in History of the Church in Weston (1909), and Samuel A. Elliot, Heralds of a Liberal Faith, vol. 3 (1910). A more thorough account is Chandler Robins, "Memoir of Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 18 (1891). See also Albert Christ-Janer et al., comps., American Hymns Old and New (2 vols., 1980); George W. Cooke, Unitarianism in America (1902); Conrad E. Wright, The Liberal Christians (1970); and Wright, American Unitarianism, 1805-1865 (1989). Obituaries and tributes are in the Unitarian Review (Feb. 1876); the Christian Register, 22 and 29 Jan. 1872; and the Boston Daily Advertiser, 18 Jan. 1876.

• Citation: David B. Eller. "Sears, Edmund Hamilton"; http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-01358.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Mon Dec 30 15:10:41 CST 2002 Copyright c. 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

• Regeneration 1854 No higher question can be offered to the human intellect, than that of the method of salvation by Jesus Christ. Its unmeasured importance is obvious to us, whenever in contemplative mood we open the pages of the New Testament, and find that a splendid apparatus of means has been provided; for we know that this would not have been done unless momentous interests were at issue. These two questions, What are we? and Whither do we tend? will at times press painfully upon thoughtful minds, and demand an answer. Ideals of a better state are haunting them, and producing within them unutterable longings after peace. There are three topics which cannot fail to command the interest and attention of those whose minds are revolving the great problem of life:-- The evil, depravity, and suffering involved in the human condition; the darkness that broods upon the earth and our own spirits. Conceptions of a better state; dreams of perfection...

• Edmund Hamilton Sears (April 6, 1810-January 16, 1876), a Unitarian parish minister and author, was understood in his day to be conservative and not in sympathy with either "broad church" or "radical" Unitarians. He wrote a number of theological works influential among liberal Protestants, inside and outside the Unitarian fold. Sears's fame is due to his composition of the quintessentially Unitarian Christmas carol, "It Came upon the Midnight Clear." The youngest of three sons of Joseph and Lucy (Smith) Sears, Edmund grew up on a farm within sight of the Berkshire Hills, in Sandisfield, Massachusetts. He told his friend and colleague, Chandler Robbins, that as a child he had fancied the hilltops to rise up near heaven, where "bright-robed messengers alighted and rested, as they came and went on their errands of love." From his father Edmund learned to appreciate poetry. He wrote that as a child, "[w]hen at work, some poem was always singing through my brain." From both parents he learned the importance of moral duty. Though they encouraged his love of study, the burden of farm labor prevented regular school attendance. Yet in 1831 his education was advanced enough for his admission as a sophomore at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He won a college prize for his poetry. Upon graduation Sears studied law for nine months under a lawyer in Sandisfield. He then taught at Brattleboro (Vermont) Academy, and soon began to study for the ministry under Addison Brown, minister of the Unitarian Church in Brattleboro. Attracted by the writings of Boston divines William Ellery Channing <articles/williamellerychanning.html> and Henry Ware, Sears went on to study at the Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1834-37. He did student preaching in Barnstable, Massachusetts, where he met Ellen Bacon. They married in 1839. In the meantime the American Unitarian Association supported Sears's work as a missionary in the frontier area around Toledo, Ohio. In late 1838 he supplied the pulpit for the First Congregational Church and Society in Wayland, Massachusetts. Impressed by his character and his preaching, the church extended a call to settle with them. He accepted, and the church ordained and installed him as minister in February, 1839. Many years later, Sears explained that he had never been ambitious for a large city pulpit or for the prominence of such a position. Rather, he was drawn by "the quiet beauty of Wayland with its sylvan life and little parish." Though he found Wayland pleasing, Sears learned that to provide for his family he needed to serve a larger, more prosperous church. His successful ministry at the Congregational Church in Lancaster, 1840-47, was, however, cut short by illness and depression. Unable afterwards to preach in a voice loud enough to be heard by a large congregation or to sustain the work of a large parish, Sears returned to Wayland for a year of rest and recovery. When his health had improved, he was recalled to the Wayland ministry and served there 1848-65. With a lighter workload he spent much of his time writing. As a student Sears had written a Christmas carol, "Calm on the Listening Ear of Night," 1834, his lyrics describing the mystical moment when the angels' anthem burst upon the silent hills and plains of Palestine. It was printed in many American hymnals. But it was his carol, "It Came upon the Midnight Clear," first performed in Wayland in 1849, that achieved lasting popularity. Writing during a period of personal melancholy, and with news of revolution in Europe and the United States' war with Mexico fresh in his mind, Sears portrayed the world as dark, full of "sin and strife," and not hearing the Christmas message: 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. Some have criticized "It Came upon the Midnight Clear" for its unscriptural references to "prophet-bards" and an "age of gold," and for never mentioning the Christ-child. A century after the carol was written, British carol scholar Erik Routley wrote that "in its original form, the hymn is little more than an ethical song, extolling the worth and splendour of peace among men." Ironically, the piety and theology of Edmund Sears, author of this "humanist" carol, were intensely Christ-centered. "The word God may be uttered without emotion," he told his congregation, "while the word Jesus opens the heart, and touches the place of tears." Sears believed in a Christ fully human and fully divine, the incarnation of the Divine Word, and the mediator who alone could bridge "the awful gulf between God and man." Sears's was a high Christology, with an Arminian leavening: God reaches down from a great distance to humanity, through his Son and angels, but his "peace" is contingent upon a human response. In fact Sears cared little about any technical terms of the relationship between God and Christ. He wrote, "I do not believe that any analysis in the power of man can ever reduce to scientific proposition the mystic union between Christ and Father. Neither Trinity, nor Unity, neither Arian, nor Sabellian, nor Socinian, can ever give you such a psychology of the Divine nature as to bring it all within the grasp of the finite understanding." To Sears Jesus was neither a primarily historical figure, "disappeared into the distant past," nor a subject for "theological pugilism," but an experience in daily life. He found the "living Christ" best presented in the Gospel of John. A product of his lifelong biblical study, The Fourth Gospel the Heart of Christ, 1872, was his most widely-read work. In Regeneration, 1853, commissioned by the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian Association, Sears dealt with the degenerative and regenerative tendencies at work in human nature and the path to salvation. Though he rejected the orthodox doctrine of original sin, he was not as sanguine about the human condition as some Unitarians. He saw all human groups and individuals as more or less tainted with hereditary and progressive corruption. At the same time he wrote of people as fashioned in the image of God and blessed with varying degrees of development in their spiritual nature. Like his other works, Athanasia, or Foregleams of Immortality, 1858, gives expression to strains of Platonic Idealism which also, in a different setting, inform Emerson's Transcendentalism. In Athanasia Sears spoke of death and resurrection as the emergence of a person's inner nature "which comes out of the natural body as a rose out of the bursting calyx." Sears added to his revised edition of this work, Foregleams and Foreshadows of Immortality, 1873, a discussion of other religions. Finding these "provisional," he yet allowed that "all the great faiths of the world have enough in them of the good and true to save the people who live under them if they live obedient thereto." Although some Unitarian contemporaries thought Sears's positions conservative, they would have been considered highly unorthodox in other churches. His theological investigations and his use of language were entirely too independent for any but a liberal church. According to Samuel A. Eliot <articles/samuelatkinseliotii.html>, his works "bear on every page the mark of original research, candid judgment, sincere desire for truth, and charm of literary style." Sears's friend, Lydia Maria Child <articles/lydiamariachild.html>, who lived in Wayland and shared his interest in Swedenborgian mysticism, sometimes attended his services. "I love and reverence Mr. Sears," she wrote, "though I cannot quite agree with all his conclusions." He had not the temperament of a reformer, but as she observed, "He had no reluctance to incur obloquy in vindication of the right." Sears preached the equality of women and men. In a satirical poem from his Fire-side Colloquies, 1847, he argued that it was just as wrong to kill in a war as in private life and that, as soldiers killed at the order of the President, the chief executive ought to be punished: And does he make men shoot and kill? Then let some pious folk, A gallows build at Washington, And hang up Mr. Polk! After the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, Sears declared from his pulpit that "when the human and the Divine law were in conflict it was the duty of all to obey the latter." In a widely-circulated sermon, Revolution or Reform, 1856, he predicted that the crime of slavery, "persevered in and unrepented of," would lead to a national retribution. "Every time we have dallied with the slave power we have sown the wind, and every year it becomes more certain that we shall reap the whirlwind!" After the Civil War, Sears resigned his Wayland pastorate in order to spend all his time writing. He returned to ministry in 1866, however, succeeding the elderly Joseph Field in nearby Weston, Massachusetts. From 1859-71 he was also associate editor of the Monthly Religious Magazine. In 1865 Henry Whitney Bellows <articles/henrywhitneybellows.html>, then preparing to organize a new Unitarian body, the National Conference, classified Sears as an "Evangelical," one of a few ministers who "want to secede & are disposed to deny any fellowship with the looser & more liberal party." But Sears did not secede. He did make known a practical, rather than a theological concern, asking in the Monthly Religious Magazine in 1870, "How long can anyone suppose that contributions will flow largely and spontaneously into the treasury of the Association or the Conference, from churches that stand squarely on their covenants, while such a state of things [i.e., a wide range of markedly differing theological stances] is suffered to exist." Chandler Robbins noted that Edmund Sears was not a highly partisan sectarian. "He walked and worked with a sect only so far as he believed that its faith and practice conformed to the spirit and precepts of the Great Head of the Church: and he worked with it in the hope that he might influence and help its representatives to be true and loyal to their Heavenly Master?but no further." In the summer of 1873 Sears enjoyed a tour of Europe. In 1874, while working in his garden, he fell from a tree. From that time he was rarely free of illness and pain. Shortly before he died he wrote, in "My Psalm," And pain, which in the long, long hours Keeps on night and day, Through these fast-crumbling walls to thee Finds a new opening way. Papers relating to the life and ministry of Edmund H. Sears are at the Wayland Historical Society and at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition to the works mentioned above, Sears wrote Genealogy and Biographical Sketches of the Ancestry and Descendents of Richard Sears, the Pilgrim (1857); Pictures of the Olden Time (1857); Hindrances to a Successful Ministry (1858); Christian Lyrics (1860); The Town of Wayland in the Civil War of 1861-65; Sermons and Songs of the Christian Life (1875); Christ in the Life (1877); Last Sermon Written, but Not Preached, with Chandler Robbins's Sermon in Commemoration of Rev. E. H. Sears (1876); and various articles, printed sermons, and tracts. Sears wrote between 40 and 50 hymns. There is no full-length biography of Sears. Shorter biographical pieces include Chandler Robbins, "Memoir of Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1891); In Memoriam: Edmund Hamilton Sears, Ellen Bacon Sears, Katherine Sears (1898); a chapter in Samuel A. Eliot, Heralds of a Liberal Faith, vol. 3 (1910); Thomas D. Wintle, "Gentle Prophet of the Liberal Soul," in A New England Village Church: The First Church in Lancaster (1985); an entry by David B. Eller in American National Biography (1999); and a 1998 paper for Andover Newton Theological School by Madeleine M. Sifantus, "Edmund Hamilton Sears Biographical Sketch and Transcriptions of His Notebooks From 1834 and 1835." For information on Sears's role in denominational politics see Charles Lowe, A Statement in Regard to the Position and Policy of the American Unitarian Association: Chiefly in Reply to Letters by Rev. E.H. Sears and Rev. Francis E. Abbot (1868) and Conrad Wright, "Henry W. Bellows and the Organization of the National Conference," The Liberal Christians (1970). On how he was viewed by Lydia Maria Child, see Carolyn L. Karcher, The First Woman In the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child (1994) and Milton Meltzer and Patricia G. Holland, editors, Lydia Maria Child: Selected Letters, 1817-1880 (1982). For an angle on Sears's theology see Daniel Walker Howe, "The Cambridge Platonists of Old England and the Cambridge Platonists of New England," in Conrad Edick Wright, American Unitarianism, 1805-1865 (1989). There is information on the most famous carol in Kenneth Sawyer, The Christmas Homily: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (1997); Erik Routley, The English Carol (1958) and Ian Bradley, The Penguin Book of Carols (1999) provide modern non-Unitarian Universalist analysis and evaluation. Article by Peter Hughes <authors/peterhughes.html>

• Correspondence It being nearly the Fourth of July i just stumbled upon a poem by one of our favorites, E. H. Sears (you remember Rev Sears who wrote the words to It Came Upon A Midnight Clear?) from the Boston Investigator, Wed Dec 17, 1862, p 264 Poetry and Anecdotes. Song of the Stars and Stripes We see the gallant streamer yet Float from the bastioned wall. One hearty song for fatherland : That banner shall not fall. Last on our gaze, when outward bound We plough the ocean's foam; First on our longing eyes again To waft our welcome home. Beneath thy shade we've toiled in peace; The golden corn we reap; We've taken home our bonny brides; We've rocked our babes to sleep; We marched to front the battle-storms That brought the invaders nigh, When the grim lion cowered and sank Beneath the eagle's eyes. Beneath the stars and stripes we'll keep, Come years of weal or woe : Close up, close up the broken line, And strike the traitors low! Ho, brothers of the "border States"! We reach across the line, And pledge our faith and honor now As once in Auld Lang Syne. We'll keep the memories bright and green Of all our old renown; We'll strike the traitor hand that's raised To pluck the eagle down: Still shall it guard your Southern homes From all the foes that come. We'll move with you to harp and flute, Or march to fife and drum Or, if ye turn from us in scorn, Still shall our nation's sign Roll out again its streaming stars On all the border line; And, with the same old rallying-cry, Beneath its folds we'll meet, And they shall be our conquering sign, Or be our winding sheet. I guess a pre-civil war reference? Boston Daily Advertiser, (Boston, MA) Friday, December 25, 1868; pg. 2; Issue 152; col B