I Heard the Bells...the Story Behind the Song

As I was reading my Advent Devotional this morning, my heart was touched by the story behind the song "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The song was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas Day, 1863. He wrote it out of heartache and anger.

In 1861, His wife died in a tragic accident. Her gown caught fire one night and she died the next morning. Longfellow was also badly burned in effort to put out the flames. That same year the Civil War broke out. Two years later, his 16 year old son that had run away to join the Civil Army was severely injured in the war and sent home.

Here is the poem that he wrote in his despair:

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.

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 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.

You can see how the sorrow and gloom of the war and the loss of his wife lingers in stanzas two, three, and four.

But he didn't stop there. Catching an eternal perspective and the real message of Christmas and Christ Himself, he wrote two more stanzas:

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."

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.

Maybe you too, are mourning this Christmas as Longfellow did many years ago. Perhaps you may have a son or daughter in the military that is absent from you, or someone close to you that you have recently lost. Or maybe you just need to feel the peace that comes from celebrating Christ's birth. Whatever your situation, I pray that you will capture the true meaning of Christmas, and hear the bells ringing in your heart "peace on earth, good will to men."