One of my favorite Christmas carols is “I
Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. This
carol comes from a poem called “Christmas Bells”, written by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow in 1864.
Three years before the poem was written, the Civil War
started, and Longfellow’s eldest son enlisted in the Union army. In that same year, his wife burned to death
in a tragic accident. Longfellow himself
was severely burned trying to help his wife.
Two years later, Longfellow got word that his son had been shot in a
battle in the war and was not expected to live.
So, by 1864, Longfellow had had a lot of sorrow, and not much to be
joyful about at Christmastime.
In the poem, Longfellow uses the idea of Christmas Bells as
the marker for the happiness associated with the celebration of Christmas
day. The first three verses of the poem use
the bells to reflect Longfellow’s past joy at the Christmas season:
"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
In the next two verses, things change.
He describes the horror inflicted on the nation by the Civil War, and
how the joy of Christmas, like the bells, was drowned out by the misery of the
war:
Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
In the next verse, it gets very personal. Longfellow describes his reaction to the
horror of the war, and to the misery going on in his life at that same time:
And in despair I bowed 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!"
But, in the last verse of the poem Longfellow reveals the reason for
his hope, and renewed joy:
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!"
The bells cannot be silenced by the evil around him, for the bells are
ringing out God’s love, the love that brought His Son to a cold manger on that
day over 2000 years ago. And they ring out today, reminding us of that love,
the love that brought Christ to sacrifice himself for us, 33 years later.
The song ends with these words:
Do you hear the bells, they're ringing?
They’re like the angels singing
Open up your heart and hear them
And, that is my wish for you this Christmas: to hear the bells. We live in a world today that is wracked by
hate, where evil seems to flourish and war and terror abound. But, the bells
are still ringing. God is still loving.
Hear the bells.
Know the love of God.
Know that God will prevail, no matter what.
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord.”
That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
