Peace on Earth as the principal message of the Christmas story is something I’ve been reflecting on in recent posts through in comments through the reflections on the Oratorio Song-Cycle ‘One Way’.
‘I Hear the Bells on Christmas Day’ is one of the most riveting Christmas poems that I could imagine ever being written. It was penned by Henry Longfellow, a fervent writer who, as an abolitionist, crusaded to put an end to slavery and racial discrimination in America. As it is, at times, with great works of art, this poem was written at one of the lowest points of its author’s life.
Many years earlier, his beloved wife died suddenly after four years of marriage due to a miscarriage during the sixth month of what would have been their first child. Born in Portland, Maine, he first had one of his poems published at the age of 13, by which time he was also fluent in Latin. By the time he graduated from university, over 40 of his poems had been published in major periodicals in the USA and Europe.
At age 24 he married a long time sweetheart named Mary. Henry gave credit to his love for her for some of the poetry he was publishing at this time. He was shattered by her sudden death and wrote ‘Footsteps of an Angel’ at one of his lowest points.
8 years later, he married Frances, after a long distance (ninety miles was huge back then) relationship. This was a year after he first published ‘Poems on Slavery’, his first public writing on this so important issue. Over the next 12 years, Henry and Frances had six children born to their family.
3 months after the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Frances was putting up her daughter’s hair for the night. A self igniting match fell and set fire to a small pot of bee’s wax used on the end of the girl’s curls, which ignited and caught her dress on fire. Henry came running from the adjacent room and desperately put out the flames. They both were horribly burned and she succumbed to her injuries that night.
Lest than 2 years later, his eldest son, who had signed up in the Unionist army with his father’s blessing, was almost fatally injured during a battle and was left impaired for the rest of his life. The war continued to rage and the casualties were enormous.
Imagine how the bells ringing to welcome Christmas that year would have sounded to him on that night. His doctor was occasionally prescribing opium at the time, in an attempt to lift this brilliant Harvard professor from total despair.
It was at this lowest, saddest, most desperate point of his life that ‘I Heard the Bells of Christmas Day’ was born to him.
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!
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!
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!”
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.”
As a kid, growing up in a Presbyterian church community, this beautiful hymn was one whose name I thought was ‘I heard the bells of Christmas say‘. Even now, when I think of these words, that interpretation rings true. Musical sounds speak to us and it seems at times with these words, that that is what the bells actually sound like in their resonance. ‘Peace on Earth’. ‘A voice, a chime’, music in such a pure form.
I never would have dreamed back in December of 2006 presenting ‘One Way’, that a year later I’d be serving with a different Congregation. The same is true this year, in terms of an unexpected departure from the Congregation we were serving our 7th Christmas with last year. Today I returned to a recording from our 2019 Lessons and Carols Service at Oakridge Church, in London, Ontario, on December 24 of 2019. I am so grateful that we were able to present this inspiring song with close to 75 friends in our ministry of music, singing and playing instruments. As I was saying in yesterday’s blog, the combined sound of youth singing with adults of all ages is one of the most beautiful sounds of all.
This new version from ‘Casting Crowns’ of ‘I heard the bells on Christmas Day’, on their ‘Peace on Earth’ Christmas CD in 2008 was literally heard around the world as it rose to the top of a number of charts. A few years later a choir arrangement of this song was released, complete with orchestral parts available, and it soon became one of the most successfully Christmas anthems of recent years.
There are a number of wonderful versions of this on line of this anthem, as well as the original hymn. To hear our version of the 2011 anthem published by J.W. Pepper, please click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSX7QNfROpc
To click on a read along preview of the anthem, try this: https://www.jwpepper.com/I-Heard-the-Bells-on-Christmas-Day/10310243.item#/submit
To hear the Casting Crowns beautiful original version, follow this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7670CXvPX0
To hear the famous 1872 hymn adaptation of this poem, listen to this beautiful version that was released a few weeks ago by one of our family’s favourite family bands, The Petersons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMpBt3fYfn8
(while you’re visiting the Petersons, you may want to check out their ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Go, ‘Tell it on the Mountain’ videos, also released just a few weeks ago.)