Sermon Tone Analysis

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The life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the more famous poets and educators in our country’s history, was marked by a number of notable tragedies.
He was born in 1807, and seemed to have a love of and a knack for literature and poetry from early on.
In fact, at the age of 13, he had his first poem published.
He and Mary Storer Porter, who was a childhood friend of his from their days in Portland Maine, married in September 1831.
Just over three years later, he was offered a position as a professor of modern languages for Harvard, but before he could fully take the position, he was told that he needed to spend a year or so abroad, where he studied German as well as Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and the Icelandic language.
10 months later, while traveling abroad, his wife Mary had a miscarriage of their first child.
This brought on an illness for her that took her life just a few weeks later.
As you can imagine, his heart was broken by her unexpected death.
Not long after he wrote the following:
“One thought occupies me night in day… She is dead—She is dead!
All day long I am weary and sad.”
A couple of years later, he met and soon fell in love with Fannie Appleton.
As hard as he pursued her for marriage, she pushed back, but in the end, after seven years of a determined effort, she relented and accepted his proposal.
In 1843, the couple were married, and the two of them had six children together.
Tragedy struck our Nation in April 1861 when the Civil War began.
Only a couple months later, in early July, tragedy struck the Longfellow family.
The day before the tragic event, Fannie had written in her journal: “We are all sighing for the good sea breeze instead of this stifling land one filled with dust.”
It was so hot that she decided to cut 7-year-old Edie’s hair.
After trimming some of her beautiful curls, Fannie thought she should preserve some of them, so she decided to save some of the clippings in a bag using sealing wax.
While melting a bar of sealing wax, a few drops inadvertently fell onto her dress.
Then, that gentle sea breeze she had longed for the day before, blew through the open window and ignited her dress on fire.
In an effort to protect her two youngest children, she ran out of the room and into Henry’s study.
He quickly jumped to his feet and tried to put out the flames with a small rug that was on the floor.
When that didn’t work, he tried to put out the flames with his own body while embracing her, severely burning his own face, hands and arms.
The next morning Fannie died.
His own burns were so bad, that he was unable to attend Fanny’s funeral.
A few months later, during the Christmas season, Longfellow wrote.
“How inexpressibly sad are all holidays.”
and a year later he wrote, “I can make no record of these days.
Better leave them wrapped in silence.
Perhaps someday God will give me peace.”
On Christmas Day in 1862 Long fellow wrote in his journal: “A Merry Christmas’ say the children, but that is no more for me.”
Early 1863, their 17-year-old son Charley quietly snuck away to join the union army in Washington DC.
He did very well and was soon promoted to lieutenant.
In June of that year he contracted typhoid fever and malaria and was sent home for a few months to recover, heading back to join his unit on August 15, 1863.
On November 27 he was wounded by a bullet that entered his left shoulder, traveled across his back, and nicked his spine, before exiting his right shoulder.
On Christmas day that year, unsure whether his son would ever walk again, or even live, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did what writers do, he wrote.
Before he was done writing, he had finished what became his most famous poem, which a few years later was put to music.
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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!
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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!
Some historians have speculated that after Henry wrote the above, the beautiful bells of Christmas morning were briefly silenced, possibly by the groans of his wounded son whom he was now caring for, and with the Civil War still raging on, no end in sight at the time, he wrote.
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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!”
In very much the same way that many of the Psalmist’s write in the book of Psalms, when recording their own thoughts filled with despair.
Henry looked back at the words he had written, and as he thought through them, and then, as his mind was drawn to the sovereign God, the Christmas Bells continued to ring yet louder still, reminding Henry, that despite his own heartache and despair, and regardless of raging Civil War, the Sovereign God still reigned!
He then recorded the following;
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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.”
With that story and song in mind, let’s look together at the next Advent, the Advent of Peace.
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The Advent of Peace
While we as a Nation are not in the midst of a Civil War, in many ways it seems, that peace.....peace is still hard to come by.
So many lives are confronted daily by hardship and loss.
We all probably know of someone who will be going through Christmas this year minus someone they love dearly, and for some of you, well you’re the one missing someone you love, and here I am talking about peace!
For you peace is only a memory, and a distant memory at that.
For others of you, there is so much turmoil in the home that peace is only experienced when the eyes close at night and you drift off to sleep, and in just a few short hours you will wake up and it starts all over again.
And you don’t even feel rested at the beginning of the day.
For others of you, well you could easily add to to this list of why peace is all but out the door.
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For so many right now, there is no peace in life, your life is filled with storms.
You may recall that last week we looked at the first Advent, the Advent of Hope.
From my own life, as well as things that I have learned as I have gone through Scripture, I believe the Advent of Hope is the perfect lead in to this weeks Advent, the Advent of Peace.
You see, there are times that, like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, peace is not something you feel is present in your life, but that doesn’t mean it’s not available.
Often times peace comes from the hope we have in Christ.
The hope that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was reminded of when the Christmas bells rang loudly.
Perhaps one of the best Biblical examples of this is in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14.
Would you turn there with me this morning?
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Matthew 14:23-31 Page 1042 in the Pew Bibles.
Matthew 14:23-31
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Peace in the midst of the storm.
Let me ask you a question, Next Slide
At what point in time in the story did the storm stop?
(after Jesus entered the boat).
Yet in the midst of the storm, Peter was able to literally walk on the water.
I don’t know about you, but I find that absolutely remarkable.
I mean to be honest with you, Jesus walking on the water isn’t nearly as amazing.
Think about it for a moment, He had just fed as many as 15,000 people with 5 small loaves of bread and 2 small fish, and by the way, He was God in the flesh.
But Peter?
The dude is at times a stumbling, foot in his mouth, impulsive speak without thinking guy.
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