[:en]Thoughts from “Our Daily Bread” (12/19/17)[:]

[:en]The wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s wife, Frances, died tragically in a fire.  He was so sad on that Christmas without her.   And in 1863, his son joined the army to fight in the American Civil War and was critically wounded.  Longfellow was experiencing another painful Christmas and began to write the song “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”.   The lyrics in the fourth verse had a violent imagery mocking the message of peace.   By the 5th and 6th verses, his desolation is nearly complete.  But then,  from the depths of that bleak Christmas day, Longfellow heard the irrepressible sound of hope.  And he wrote this seventh stanza as follows:  “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!”[:]