Hark! The children plead for peace

Hark! The children plead for peace / Comes their cry, “Let warfare cease!”
Voicing in their rising chorus / Dreams of life unfrayed by force.
May we hear these words now hurled / O’er a reeling warring world;
With resolve afresh we sing, / Now the dawn of peace we bring.

Hark! The children plead for peace,
Comes their cry, “Let warfare cease!”

Led by those whose future lies / In the hope that lives or dies
With the whims of those in power, / ‘Tis the time to seize the hour.
In this season of goodwill, / Childlike wisdom leads us still;
Now for justice let us toil, / ‘Til its righteous waters roil.

Hark! The children plead for peace,
Comes their cry, “Let warfare cease!”

Days of holy festive mirth / Circle now an eager earth,
Strained by greed and scarred by war, / Squandered bounty now made poor.
Yet in winter’s darkness lengthened / Comes a wish by children strengthened—
Not for toys or sugarplums / But the end of battle drums.

Hark! The children plead for peace,
Comes their cry, “Let warfare cease!”

Hark! The children’s cries increase,
“Now the day of dawning peace!”

Text: David R. Weiss, b. 1959 (© 2013 David R. Weiss)
Tune: Felix Mendelssohn, 1809-1847, MENDELSSOHN (“Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!” Lutheran Book of Worship 60 – public domain)

Permission is given to photocopy Hark! The children plead for peace for use in worship.

Author’s Note: This hymn uses a favorite Christmas Carol tune by Felix Mendelssohn (“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”) to allow the children of today to plead for peace.