I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

While, I was listening to the Jars of Clay Christmas Album this song really spoke to me. I can relate with sometimes thinking there is no peace on earth. After googling the song, I found out it was a poem first written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote it during the Civil War and the song excludes two stanzas. I find the two excluded stanzas give great power to the song. One that the peace on earth is referring to a war and good will to men to the enslaved. I am overjoyed that just as the blacks in the U.S. were freed, that Christ was born into this world to free me from enslavement to sin.

"Christmas Bells"
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



"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!"