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He was a minister, author and poet born on a farm in
Sandfield, Massachusetts as the youngest of three boys. His parents instilled in him a
sense of moral duties and his father was the person that taught him poetry
appreciation. Even though his
assisting his parents on their farm had entailed many missed days from
school, he entered Union College in Schenectady, New York, and after
graduation in 1834 he followed it studying law for nine months and teaching
at an Academy in Vermont. Becoming interested in the work of
William Ellery Channing and Henry Ware, who were Boston divines, he attended
the Theological School based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and after leaving
he became a missionary and preached in Toledo, Ohio from 1837. He was ordained as a minister in February 1839 in
Wayland, Massachusetts, and he preach there and several other Unitarian congregations
in Greater Boston. Often
writing poetry and other works he wrote the Christmas carol "Calm on the
Listening Ear" and in December 1849 he was asked by W. Lunt, who was a
Unitarian minister, to write a Christmas poem for a Sunday School service. This is when he came up with "It
Came Upon a Midnight Clear" which would become an extremely popular
Christmas carol the world over.
An influential author he produced several publications from 1853 and
these include Regeneration, The Fourth Gospel, The Heart of Christ and
Sermons and Songs of the Christian Live. As an editor he co-edited The Monthly Religious Magazine
for 12 years with Rev. R. Ellis.
He took a respite from preaching to turn to writing full-time after
the end of the Civil War, but he returned to the church in 1866 to succeed
the minister in Weston, Massachusetts. In 1874 he fell from a tree while
doing some work in his garden and this result in his being in virtual constant
pain from then on. He died in
Weston, Massachusetts in January 1876 when he was 65 years old.
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear recordings
Leroy Anderson
and His Orchestra
Decca B0003552-02 (CD: A Leroy Anderson Christmas)
Sources:
- http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/edmundhamiltonsears.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Sears
- http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/s/e/sears_eh.htm
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