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 (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: Cros­by, Ni­chols and Com­pa­ny, 1854)
• Pictures of the Old­en Time, as Shown in the For­tunes of a Fam­i­ly of Pil­grims, 1857
• Athanasia, or Fore­gleams of Im­mor­tal­i­ty, 1857
• The Fourth Gos­pel, the Heart of Christ, 1872
• Sermons and Songs of the Chris­tian Life, 1875

• Brown, p. 466
• Erickson, p. 391
• Julian, p. 1036
• Stulken, p. 157

1. Calm on the List­en­ing Ear of Night
2. It Came up­on the Mid­night Clear