Longfellow & The Bells He Heard On Christmas Day

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a New Englander and an ardent abolitionist. In 1863 he wrote the poem “I heard the bells on Christmas Day,” and later it was put to a tune. That tune is often song in Churches during this time of year, but keep in mind that when Longfellow says,

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.”

That what Longfellow has in mind as “Wrong” is the Biblical Christianity of the South and what he has in his mind as “Right prevailing” is the Jacobin anti-Christianity of the Northern Yankees.

Further, there are stanzas of Longfellow’s poem that don’t find their way into most Christian hymn books. For example,

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!

So, Longfellow doesn’t give us a Christmas Carol so much as he gives us Jacobin agitprop. Per Longfellow, the South is responsible for breaking the peace on earth and goodwill to men. This is the opposite of the truth. Per Longfellow, it is the South’s fault that Northern homes are forlorn.

Longfellow doubtless writes this because his son Charlie was significantly wounded once, while a separate time Charlie returned home having contracted a serious fever while at the front.

What we sing, abstracted from the back story is fine but when we know the back story this Christmas Carol is almost as bad as Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” while sanctifying the wicked war effort as much as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” did.

Personally, I’d rather not sing this Jacobin agitprop at Christmas. I hate the cause of the Jacobin Yankees in their work at destroying the last great Christian civilization. I loathe the Lincoln-worshipers with their strained and attenuated understanding of US history.

Of course, you can find a Gospel Coalition article praising the song.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

One thought on “Longfellow & The Bells He Heard On Christmas Day”

  1. Thank you for this, Pastor Bret! I used to love “I Heard the Bells…” until I learned its history.
    As children growing up in the South, we had an alternate verse for The Battle Hymn. 🙂 We weren’t taught that song’s pernicious/heretical history either, but at least we had a way to mock it.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *