The Bells Of Christmas

Menges': Adoration of the Shepherds

The familiar Christmas carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day comes from the poem Christmas Bells written by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow wrote the poem some months before the end of the Civil War. The sentiments he expressed in the poem can still be felt today by many, but my favorite line in the poem and in the carol is: "God is not dead , nor doth He sleep..." With all the turmoil in our world and perhaps at times in our own lives, it may be tempting to think that God is dead or at the very least, He is asleep. Our faith tells us He is not, the graces and blessing He has bestowed on us tell us He is very much alive and awake. Christmas brings us the gift of our salvation wrapped in swaddling clothes in the Christ Child.

No matter what may be going on around us or in us, let us accept this gift with all humility, love and joy. May the bells of Christmas remind us that our God is always with us.

To all my readers and to anyone who stumbles upon this post: A Merry and Blessed Christmas. May God grant you every grace and blessing in the New Year.

If you would like to hear the carol, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, I posted the Casting Crowns version in my post for last Christmas: Christmas Eve: The Night Hope And Love Came Down. 

You can read the story behind the poem here.

"Christmas Bells"

by: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

"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!"