I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day was penned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America's foremost poet of the 1800s. Born in Maine in 1807, Henry entered college at age 15, and eventually taught modern languages at Bowdoin College and Harvard. By 1854, he had become a nationally acclaimed poet. Hiawatha alone sold over one million copies! I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day flowed from the experience of Longfellow--involving the tragic death of his wife Fanny and the crippling injury of his son Charles from war wounds.
On December 25, 1863, Longfellow sat down to write a Christmas poem. The American Civil War was still raging. The battle at Gettysburg had been fought less than six months before--a single battle that killed more men than the casualties of Viet Nam claimed. The nation was torn apart--north against south, brother against brother. Most people either had a family member or an acquaintance who was now a casualty. It was not a merry Christmas. At the traditional pealing of the bells on Christmas day, it seemed almost surrealistic to Longfellow. On one hand, he heard the beautiful sound of church bells near the Harvard campus. On the other hand, he saw death and destruction throughout the land.
Was Jesus really the Prince of Peace? Would there ever be peace on earth, good will to men, as the angels had promised? Where was God in the midst of the violence and carnage? Longfellow wrote: And in despair I moved my head There is no peace on earth, I said For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men. Fortunately, Longfellow didn't stop at the end of that depressing verse. The same bells that reminded him of the Civil War also brought him hope for the future. He wrote in faith: Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: God is not dead, nor doth he sleep The wrong shall fail, the right prevail With peace on earth, good will to men.
“And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.”
Matthew 2:13 KJV
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