When the Bells Toll

Meditation XVII and how death translates a chapter of life into a different language.

The Bell Tower of St. Paul’s, London.

My maternal grandfather, Fredrick Tinsley Donne Cherry (1912-1970) descends from John Donne, Bishop of St. Paul (1621-1631).

If you've never read John Donne's Meditation XVII, go here to read it online.

Two years into his ministry at St. Paul’s, John Donne, laid on his sick bed. The plague had taken its death grip on London, and Donne felt he might be facing his own imminent death.

The author at John Donne’s marble statue at St. Paul’s, the only statue to survive the 1666 London Fire, and with John Donne in his death shroud, though alive.

One day, while lying sick, John heard the St. Paul's bells begin to toll. He counted the number of times they tolled, knowing that they would match the age of a church member who had just died (an English tradition).

The bells tolled 26 times.

Curious, St. Paul's pastor sought to send a messenger to inquire the identity of the 26-year old who had just died.

However, John Donne changed his mind and didn’t send a messenger to inquire.

Instead, he reached for pen and parchment and wrote Meditation XVII, a classic treasure of eternal wisdom about life and death.

He concludes with the line made famous by Ernest Hemingway:

"Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."

In essence, every human beings death should remind us of our connection to mankind and our mortality and the need to trust in the Creator and His grace, love, and mercy.

All of Meditation XVII is comforting for Christians who’ve had loved ones die unexpectedly. For example, John Donne writes in the third sentence:

Do you believe that? I certainly do.

The chapter of your loved one's life in the book of mankind is not "torn out of the book” at death, but his or her chapter of life is, by God's grace, "translated into a better language."