Faith Column: The hope of Christ
Faith Column
I recently learned the history of the Christmas carol “I heard the bells on Christmas Day” as related on TheGospelCoalition.org in a post by Justin Taylor.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the original poem on Dec. 25, 1863 seeking to capture the dissonance in his own heart and the world he observed around him.
He was a 57-year-old, recently widowed father of six children. Less than two years earlier, Henry’s wife Fanny had died from extensive burns suffered when her dress caught on fire. He was unable to put out the flames in time and his injuries were “severe enough that he was unable even to attend his wife”s funeral.”
Henry had just returned from Washington D.C. on a trip to retrieve his oldest son Charles from an Army hospital.
Charley Longfellow had left home in March to join the Union Army, without telling his father or siblings of his plans. Henry eventually fave his permission for Charley to enlist, after Captain W.H. McCartney of the 1st Massachusetts Artillery wrote to Henry for his approval. Charley had later been promoted to Lieutenant and was injured in late November during a battle of the Mine Run Campaign.
He was shot in the left shoulder and the bullet traveled across his back before it exited under his right shoulder blade. It nicked his spine and initial reports were that the wound “was very serious” and “paralysis might ensue. A more thorough diagnosis was that it would be “long in healing,” and Charley would need at least six months to recover.
In these gloomy circumstances, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow heard the Christmas bells ringing in Cambridge and the carollers singlin of “peace on earth, good will to men.” There was no peace or good will bisible to him in that moment. His oldest son had been gravely hurt because his country was fighting against itself. Instead he saw “injustice and violence that seemed to mock the truthfulness of this optimistic outlook.”
The words he wrote on that Christmas morning capture his doubt and loss.
“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!”
But as he continued to listen, Longfellow remembered that God is alive and that righteousness still exists.
“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.”
I would like to testify that righteousness will prevail. As we reflect on the lessons woven through Longfellow’s words, we are reminded that, no matter the strom or the suffering, we are not alone in our struggles.
The peace we long for is not always found in the absence of hardship, but in the presence of a steadfast faith. In our own lives, as we face moments of doubt, pain or despair, we too can listen for those bells — for the quiet, enduring truth that good will triumph. We are part of a greater story, one where love and truth will not be silenced. In the name of hope, let us press on.

Wrigley Neeley is a Senior at Steamboat Springs High School. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and plans to serve a mission after graduation.

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