I posted this in 2009, edited it for 2010.
One of the most beautiful Christmas songs ever penned arose out of the deepest time of tragedy and despair our nation has ever known. Many times that is the case. Sometimes it takes tragedy to focus our eyes upon what is beautiful, what is true, what is constant and changeless. We often look beyond the obvious truth before us to chase after unfulfilling and elusive dreams. I have always had an interest in history and most things about the Civil War. As a native son of Hagerstown, Maryland, it’s almost a given. Twelve miles to the south is the town of Sharpsburg, the Potomac to the west and the Antietam Creek which intersects it. Burnside Bridge, Miller’s Cornfield and Bloody Lane were common sights. Gettysburg, PA is fifty miles north and east and to the south is Chantilly, Fairfax Station and Manassas, in VA, eighty miles away. Then, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and The Wilderness, another fifty miles below them. They were costly battles in loss of life and property. At Antietam, alone, twenty-three-thousand men fell in the bloodiest single day’s fight of the war, September 17, 1862. It was a bleak time in our nation’s history and a time of deep personal depression for many. One such man was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Born in Portland, Maine in 1807, the same year Abraham Lincoln was born. He became a well known professor and writer of literature at Harvard, his younger brother, Samuel became a Unitarian minister. This was a time of deep sorrow and reflection for Henry, as his wife died, tragically when her dress caught fire in their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1861. Later that year, war broke out and split the country. In 1863, his seventeen year old son, Charlie joined the Union Army, seeing action at the Battle of Chancellorsville, and contracted typhoid in June of that year. He recovered and was returned to his regiment, then, received a shoulder wound at the battle at New Hope Church, VA, on November 27. Henry went, immediately, to Washington, D.C., found his son well enough to travel and took him home to Cambridge, arriving on December 8. He was depressed — about to despair of any hope for man-kind, his torn country and his fractured life. Then, he heard the church bells peeling out on Christmas day and they seemed to resound with hope, reminding him that God is still on the throne and that hope is not found in the acts of man but in faith in Jesus Christ, a hope commemorated on Christmas day — a hope more profound than death or life themselves. Undampened in his resolve that God would triumph, even over civil war and undeterred to share his renewed hope, he penned these words, in early 1864. Included are two original verses which are usually excluded from most hymnals of today.
“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.
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.
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.
‘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 peeled 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.
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.”
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Whether you meet it in joy or sorrow, may your Christmas be filled with joy and “the peace that passeth all understanding” in the Christ of Christmas. Merry Christmas!
Reverend C. David Coyle
Christmas, 2010
My You Tube postings are located at:
http://www.youtube.com/RealLifeWorthLiving.
If you've made it this far, here is a link for you. It recounts the story above, a little different and ends with some young folks singing the song. I hope you like it. Click the link, below. Copy and paste into your browser:
http://youtu.be/AUWD9Rsmfuw
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