Missional Christmas Carols - part 5

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is based on Longfellow's wrenching poem written in the depths of the War Between the States. One of the verses that didn't make it into the carol holds this powerful image: "It was as if an earthquake rent the heathstones of a continent."

 

A unified whole, the carol nevertheless drops two verses that limit the scope to that war, and rearranges the remaining five. Here is the carol in its entirety.

 

 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!

    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."

    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!

This carol is unusual in that it dwells entirely in the modern era, if you can call 1863 modern. It is included here among missional carols not for any instruction to care for the poor, or break chains of oppression, but for the ringing pronouncement that Wrong shall fail and Right prevail. While Longfellow rightly attributes this to the Living Insomniant God, our own participation with Him is certainly implied. Longfellow's poem ended with that potent verse. Seven years after the war Calkin wrote the tune and moved an intermediate verse down to the end, as by then the world had indeed finally revolved from night to day. At least temporarily.