In 1847, Edmund Sears was a Unitarian minister in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

But a period of illness and depression brought his career to a halt.

In his condition, he couldn't preach in a voice loud enough for his large congregation to hear,

and he couldn't keep up with the workload that comes along with ministering to a large congregation.

So, he moved

20 miles east to the town of Wayland to take a year to recover. When his health improved,

he began to minister part-time in Wayland and spent much of the remainder of his time writing.

And there was plenty to write about. The middle of the 19th century was a period of tremendous

unrest in America.

The Mexican-American War was waged from 1846 to 48, and decades' worth of political controversy

were heating up and pushing the country toward civil war. Peace on earth and goodwill toward men must

have seemed like a distant dream to many. And to those who had committed their lives to spreading a message of peace and goodwill,

things must have felt especially dire.

What else could they do, except continue to deliver their message

and find new people to deliver it to and new ways to deliver it?

Sears was a prize-winning poet from his college days.

As a student, he had written a

Christmas Carol titled Calm on the Listening Ear of Night that was printed in many American

hymnals. But it was in 1848 during this period of personal struggle and against a backdrop of

a country in turmoil that he set pen to paper to write the lyrics for a new carol, a carol remarkable for its stark difference from most others,

one that portrayed the world as dark and full of sin and strife

and not hearing the Christmas message,

...