"Glory to God!" from yonder central fire Flows out the echoing lay beyond the starry choir;

66

Like circles widening round
Upon a clear blue river,

Orb after orb, the wondrous sound

Is echoed on for ever:

Glory to God on high, on earth be peace,

"And love towards men of love*-salvation and release."

Yet stay, before thou dare
To join that festal throng;

Listen and mark what gentle air
First stirr'd the tide of song;

"Tis not," the Saviour born in David's home, "To whom for power and health obedient worlds should come:".

"Tis not "the Christ the Lord:"

With fix'd adoring look

The choir of Angels caught the word,

Nor yet their silence broke:

But when they heard the sign, where Christ should be, In sudden light they shone and heavenly harmony.

Wrapp'd in his swaddling bands,
And in his manger laid,

The hope and glory of all lands

Is come to the world's aid:

No peaceful home upon his cradle smil❜d, Guests rudely went and came, where slept the royal child. But where thou dwellest, Lord,

No other thought should be,

I have ventured to adopt the reading of the Vulgate, as being generally known through Pergolesi's beautiful composition, “Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis.”

Once duly welcom'd and ador'd,

How should I part with Thee?

Bethlehem must lose Thee soon, but Thou wilt grace The single heart to be thy sure abiding-place.

Thee, on the bosom laid

Of a pure virgin mind,

In quiet ever, and in shade,

Shepherd and sage may find;

They, who have bow'd untaught to Nature's sway, And they, who follow Truth along her star-pav'd way.

The pastoral spirits first*
Approach Thee, Babe divine,

For they in lowly thoughts are nurs'd,
Meet for thy lowly shrine:

Sooner than they should miss where Thou dost dwell, Angels from Heaven will stoop to guide them to thy cell.

Still, as the day comes round

For Thee to be reveal'd,

By wakeful shepherds Thou art found,
Abiding in the field.

All through the wintry heaven and chill night air,† In music and in light thou dawnest on their prayer.

* [A beautiful allusion to the incidents described in that sweet pastoral hymn,

"While shepherds watched their flocks by night,

All seated on the ground," &c.

There is much better poetry in the world than this: but it may be well doubted whether there are two other lines that will thrill as many hearts, or brighten as many eyes.]

† [The determination of this holy festival to the day on which the Christian world agrees to celebrate it, must be allowed to be an arbitrary decision. But its occurrence in the winter, certainly gives rise to peculiar and delightful associations and usages.

O faint not ye for fear

What though your wandering sheep,
Reckless of what they see and hear,
Lie lost in wilful sleep?

High Heaven in mercy to your sad annoy
Still greets you with glad tidings of immortal joy.

The poets have not failed to improve this circumstance. So in that glorious hymn of Milton, on the morning of Christ's nativity,

"It was the winter wild,

While the heaven-born child

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies,
Nature in awe to him

Has doffed her gaudy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathize:

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour."

The same circumstance is beautifully spiritualized in the following lines on "Christmas Eve,"-having reference to the becoming practice of dressing the churches at that season with evergreens," the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together." The author of them has more "unwritten poetry" in him than any man I know.

The thickly woven boughs they wreathe
Through every hallowed fane

A soft reviving odour breathe

Of summer's gentle reign;

And rich the ray of mild green light
Which, like an emerald's glow,

Comes struggling through the latticed height
Upon the crowds below.

O let the streams of solemn thought

Which in those temples rise

From deeper sources spring than aught

Dependent on the skies:

Then, though the summer's pride departs

And winter's withering chill

Rests on the cheerless woods, our hearts
Shall be unchanging still.

Rev. William Croswell.]

Think on th' eternal home,

The Saviour left for you;

Think on the Lord most holy, come
To dwell with hearts untrue:

So shall ye tread untir'd his pastoral ways,
And in the darkness sing your carol of high praise.

ST. STEPHEN'S DAY.*

[DECEMBER 26.]

He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Acts vii. 55. [Scripture appointed as the Epistle for the Day.]

[Grant, O Lord, that in all our sufferings here upon earth, for the testimony of thy truth, we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors, by the example of thy first martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God, to succour all those who suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.]

AS
rays around the source of light
Stream upward ere he glow in sight,
And watching by his future flight

Set the clear heavens on fire;

So on the King of Martyrs wait
Three chosen bands, in royal state,†
And all earth owns, of good and great,
Is gather'd in that choir.

["Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," was one of the seven deacons first ordained, and had the distinguished honour of being the first martyr to the Christian faith. He was stoned to death.]

+ Wheatley on the Common Prayer, c. v. sect, iv. 2. "As there are three kinds of Martyrdom, the first both in will and deed, which is the highest; the second in will but not in deed; the third

One presses on, and welcomes death:
One calmly yields his willing breath,
Nor slow, nor hurrying, but in faith
Content to die or live:

And some, the darlings of their Lord,
Play smiling with the flame and sword,
And, ere they speak, to his sure word
Unconscious witness give.

Foremost and nearest to his throne,
By perfect robes of triumph known,
And likest him in look and tone,
The holy Stephen kneels,

With steadfast gaze, as when the sky
Flew open to his fainting eye,

Which, like a fading lamp, flash'd high,
Seeing what death conceals.

Well might you guess what vision bright
Was present to his raptur'd sight,
Even as reflected streams of light

Their solar source betray

*

The glory which our GoD surrounds,
The Son of Man, th' atoning wounds-
He sees them all; and earth's dull bounds
Are melting fast away.

He sees them all-no other view

Could stamp the Saviour's likeness true,

in deed but not in will; so the Church commemorates these martyrs in the same order: St. Stephen first, who suffered death both in will and deed; St. John the Evangelist next, who suffered martyrdom in will but not in deed; the Holy Innocents last, who suffered in deed but not in will."

*

["But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly to heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."]