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| Casting Crowns |
Here is another Christmas song, recorded in a contemporary style by Casting Crowns, which has become one of my favorites.
Click here to listen to "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".
Here's a live version, which sounds almost as good as the studio version.
Here's a live version, which sounds almost as good as the studio version.
I failed to recognize (until my all-knowing mother pointed it out) that this is an old, old song. I actually have it on a cd which I had made from a Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians Christmas record. According to Wikipedia, ""I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on the 1864 poem "Christmas Bells" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The song tells of the narrator's despair, upon hearing Christmas bells,
that "there is no peace on earth... for hate is strong and mocks the
song of peace on earth, goodwill to men". The carol concludes with the
bells bestowing renewed hope for mankind." For additional background into the poem, see this article by Tom Stewart.
Well, we know Who holds that hope. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
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