Peace on Earth

It is the second Sunday of Advent. The candle of peace is lit today.

We sang in church today, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." I learned the story of this song for the first time.

It was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow was a true academic and a poet. As such, he felt things very deeply. He courted his wife, Fanny, for seven years. Although he eventually won her heart, he suffered a fate worse than rejection when he lost her at a young age. Left alone, the poet and the academic in him brooded for years. The Christmas bells were a song of mourning to him, until they weren't anymore.

Peace found him.

On Christmas day, in the midst of the Civil War years he heard the bells again.

Christmas Bells


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."