By the mid-1800s, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had become a household name and in
schools and colleges his poems, like ‘The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere’ and ‘The Song
of Hiawatha’, were being memorized and quoted all over America. In 1863, however, it
had been years since Longfellow had written an original poem. He admitted to his
friends that he was weary after years of hardship. For a long time he was depressed
after his beloved wife had died in a tragic fire in 1861 and during the Christmas season
he wrote in his journal: “How inexpressibly sad to me are all the holidays.”
Just two years later, despite his deep conviction against violence, his oldest son,
Charley, left this note in his house after stealing away to join the Union Army: “I have
tried hard to resist the temptation of going to war without your leave but I cannot any
longer.” Less than a year later, on December 1, 1863, Longfellow received a telegram
that every parent during wartime dreaded: His son Charley had been badly injured in a
skirmish with Confederate troops and was in a Virginia hospital. Knowing the poor
conditions of battlefront medical stations, Longfellow left Boston to search for his son.
After arriving, he spent three days searching among the wounded, passing up and
down the lines of bleeding, bandaged men in hospital. He finally saw Charley, alive, but
barely breathing. After a short while, Charley stabilized and was eventually
allowed to return home to Boston. On Christmas Day, his son still shivering from a
renewed fever, Longfellow himself, struggling still with the terrible reality of the war
that was tearing his country apart, began to compose a new poem.
With each line, he built a picture of the darkness of his own heart, yet the awakening of
his own soul to the truth of God’s Word. He wrote in verses 3 and 4, first of ‘tragedy’
and then of ‘hope’.
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.”
His son Charley did eventually recover, and he and his father were fully reconciled.
This present Christmas season, that same wartime Christmas poem-turned-song will
once again ring out Longfellow’s story of the triumph of hope over despair. It is the
HOPE that came with the birth of JESUS, GOD’S SON, and the SAVIOR of all who
will believe in Him.
Have a blessed Christmas.