I am always fascinated (and moved) by the words of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. All the other carols talk of the birth of Jesus bringing sweetness and light and all will be well from thereon in; but the words of the second verse of this carol tell it like it is:
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!