HOST CONTACT: Don Mast 

Link Tree To All My Sites: ⁠https://linktr.ee/aguywithbooks ⁠

Email me: - ⁠donaldmast@gmail.com 

It Is Well With My Soul Lyrics: When peace like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soulIt is well
With my soul
It is well, it is well with my soulThough Satan should buffet, though trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soulIt is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soulMy sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soulIt is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul.

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Sponsored by the best history website on the planet, www.TheHistoryList.com.  

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HOST CONTACT: Don Mast 

Link Tree To All My Sites: https://linktr.ee/aguywithbooks 

Email me: - donaldmast@gmail.com 

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A Christmas story… 

On Christmas Day in 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow continued to grieve the death of his beloved second wife Fannie who had died two years prior when her housedress caught fire. Longfellow himself tried to extinguish those flames with his own body but Fannie did not survive the accident. During the subsequent two years, Henry's oldest son would enlist in the Union army to fight in the Civil War. On December 1 of that year, Henry would receive a telegram that his son had been shot during a battle of the Mine Run campaign. The location of the exit wound from the bullet would put his son at risk of being paralyzed. This father of six, now widowed, worried for the future of his children, all while cannons thundered in the south, captured his feelings as he heard the bells that Christmas day in his poem titled, 'Christmas Bells'. Yesterday as we sang this poem (now song) in our church congregation, I felt as though I could relate a little more to Longfellow and his feelings of despair that were overcome with hope by what he chose to listen to. He chose amidst the grief, amidst the cannons, amidst the fighting and hate to listen to the bells of hope. Those bells would breathe peace into his life just as they have into mine. I include below the words to the entire poem with verses that are not included in the song. They paint the beautiful picture of a man who found his hope as he bowed his head and listened more intently to his maker. "Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead, nor doth He sleeps!" I know that bowing our heads is the first step toward hope and peace in our lives. 

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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! 

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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! 

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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! 

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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! 

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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!" 

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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." 

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 The song for this episode is from Burl Ives, 1965 https://youtu.be/2nk77EOgapg

Discover the history behind the song "Yankee Doodle." 

Sponsored by my favorite tea, Oliver Pluff & Company. https://www.oliverpluff.com/.

HOST CONTACT:

Don Mast 

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Email me: - donaldmast@gmail.com

Audio Song: Yankee Doodle by Robert Shaw; The Robert Shaw Chorale

The full version of the song as it is known today:

Yankee Doodle went to town

A-riding on a pony,

Stuck a feather in his cap

And called it macaroni.

[Chorus]

Yankee Doodle keep it up,

Yankee Doodle dandy,

Mind the music and the step,

And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp,

Along with Captain Gooding,[a]

And there we saw the men and boys

As thick as hasty pudding.

[Chorus]

And there we saw a thousand men

As rich as Squire David,

And what they wasted every day,

I wish it could be savèd.

[Chorus]

The 'lasses they eat every day,

Would keep a house a winter;

They have so much, that I'll be bound,

They eat it when they've a mind to.

[Chorus]

And there I see a swamping[b] gun

Large as a log of maple,

Upon a deuced little cart,

A load for father's cattle.

[Chorus]

And every time they shoot it off,

It takes a horn of powder,

And makes a noise like father's gun,

Only a nation[c] louder.

[Chorus]

I went as nigh to one myself

As 'Siah's underpinning;

And father went as nigh again,

I thought the deuce was in him.

[Chorus]

Cousin Simon grew so bold,

I thought he would have cocked it;

It scared me so I shrinked it off

And hung by father's pocket.

[Chorus]

And Cap'n Davis had a gun,

He kind of clapt his hand on't

And stuck a crooked stabbing iron

Upon the little end on't

[Chorus]

And there I see a pumpkin shell

As big as mother's basin,

And every time they touched it off

They scampered like the nation.

[Chorus]

I see a little barrel too,

The heads were made of leather;

They knocked on it with little clubs

And called the folks together.

[Chorus]

And there was Cap'n Washington,

And gentle folks about him;

They say he's grown so 'tarnal proud

He will not ride without 'em.

[Chorus]

He got him on his meeting clothes,

Upon a slapping stallion;

He sat the world along in rows,

In hundreds and in millions.

[Chorus]

The flaming ribbons in his hat,

They looked so tearing fine, ah,

I wanted dreadfully to get

To give to my Jemima.

[Chorus]

I see another snarl of men

A-digging graves, they told me,

So 'tarnal long, so 'tarnal deep,

They 'tended they should hold me.

[Chorus]

It scared me so, I hooked it off,

Nor stopped, as I remember,

Nor turned about till I got home,

Locked up in mother's chamber.

[Chorus]