Ring Those Christmas Bells - by Joylene M. Bailey

I love Christmas carols. I love how, for about 6 weeks of the year, believers and non-believers alike are singing praises and glo-o-o-o-o-oooo-o-o-o-o-oooo-o-o-o-o-ooorias.

Secular radio stations are dashing through the snow to deck the halls, asking Santa Baby for yachts and diamond rings, and wondering how on earth Grandma could get run over by a reindeer. 

But they are also proclaiming Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing, ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.

                                           And

O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth! And praises sing to God the King, and peace to men on earth.

And

O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Even Charlie Brown sings “Glory to the newborn King”!

What kind of weird and wonderful world IS this?? That Christ’s name should be heard and sung by people who haven’t yet grasped the miraculous idea of God’s precious life-giving, soul-saving gift.

It makes me wonder as I wander, and giggle like a babe in Toyland.

Yet some could say that it isn’t the most wonderful time of the year, 2015. It’s not a yum-yummy world made for sweethearts. They would agree with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s words, “There is no peace on earth, I said”.

 When Longfellow penned the words to his poem “Christmas Bells” on December 25, 1864, he was still grieving the death of his wife, Fanny. She had been fatally burned in an accident 3 years before, on the very same day that the first shot of the American Civil War was fired. In 1862 his journal entry for Christmas Day reads, “ ‘A merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”

In 1863 he learned that his oldest son, Charles, had been severely wounded in battle.

So in 1864, Longfellow’s world was not at peace either, and hadn’t been for years. What’s more, he had been personally affected by the war.  

He wrote seven stanzas to his poem that Christmas Day in 1864. Two of them are never sung in our version of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” but I think they are important to include because they give us a good idea of Longfellow’s world, which strikingly parallels our own. They help us to understand why he said, “there is no peace on earth”, and to remind us that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep”.

In our writers group this month we were challenged to write a new verse to a favourite Christmas carol. 

(I encourage my fellow Inscribers to try this fun exercise.)

The words “there is no peace on earth, I said” resonated so much with me that I did some research on the song and then added my own verse at the end – my proclamation in response to the stanzas before it.

Christmas Bells


(Longfellow’s original poem, complete with all seven stanzas, and an extra one added at the end by Joylene M. Bailey)



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!"

Now let me gather up my faith.

My God’s at work; His love is great.

Loud let bells ring,

And I will sing,

Of Peace on earth, good-will to men!

God is not dead, nor doth He sleep. He’s still at work. He’s still Love. He’s still in charge.

So rest ye merry, Inscribers, let nothing you dismay. Remember, Christ, our Saviour, was born upon this day: to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy.

O tidings of comfort and joy.

Victorian Carolers

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10199807@N00/5198987752">Holland Christmas Open House</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>

Charlie brown

http://thefw.com/files/2011/12/a-charlie-brown-christmas1.jpg

Longfellow

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28567825@N03/3429414720">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>

Carolers

http://o.aolcdn.com/photo-hub/news_gallery/6/9/695353/1290190475673.JPEG

The Bells Still Ring Peace – Ramona Heikel

This is a season of joy.

I don’t remember another year as full as this one of startling news around the world.  But that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus’ life and death cover every single person, group and nation that flash across our television, computer and cell phone screens.

As I’ve felt powerless over these past months when I see the violence and grief around the globe, I have felt God drawing me into praying about them.  My prayers typically begin, “Lord, I feel helpless, but I know that You are not helpless…”

To pray as practically and powerfully as possible, I have found help through certain scriptures and websites.  The website that has had the most powerful effect on me is called Prayer Ideas, where videos show scenes from various countries while a local believer prays for that country.  You can find it here.  Even though I work with many precious, gentle Muslim teens, I find it alarming to think about all those of that religion that are brutalizing others.  But while watching this video for the first time, I shed tears of joy as I listened to Middle East believers praying for God to deliver and change hardened hearts.  It reminds me that no matter how bleak the news reports are, there are just as many victories unreported of God’s grace and power in the lives of victims and perpetrators alike.  God is there, and He is at work accomplishing his will!

Some of the tools that help me pray, especially for the terrorists and the Middle East, are the prayers at  prayingscriptures.com, prayerideas.org, prayercast.com, and worldinprayer.org.  Psalm 10:12-18, Isaiah 55:3-13, Job 24:22-24 are some encouraging verses that I’ve copied and keep handy.

We can and do celebrate joyfully this Christmas season because we remember that Jesus accomplished the purpose for which he was born on this earth!

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.”

Yet pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor does He sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Posted by Ramona     

www.happilywriting.com

[Image: the public domain image The Nativity by Federico Barocci (1526-1612) is courtesy of www.reuseableart.com .  The portion of the Christmas carol is from “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”, music by Jean Baptiste Calkin, lyrics by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]