Hail, thou! appointed to adorn
The rising King of Heaven,
The promised Child to Judah born,
The Son to Israel given;
In whom the peaceful empire seal'd,
Should more and more increase;
In Him, the Mighty God reveal'd,-
In Him, the Prince of Peace!
So on thy beacon-light we gaze,
In western climes afar,
And note thy heav'n-directed rays,
Thou lovely eastern star!
With praise to Him who, in the sky,
Thy wondrous cresset hung,
Prompt to inform the observing eye,
Apart from speech or tongue-
Him, who permits to all to see
The light their stations need;
Who chose the star-vers'd sage by thee,
Star of the east, to lead;
Who made, by shepherd-swains at night
The angel's voice be heard,
And gives to us His scripture's light—
His own recording Word.
T comes upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
"Peace on the earth, good-will to men,
From heaven's all-gracious King."
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.
Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurl'd,
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on heavenly wing,
And ever o'er its Babel-sounds.
The blessed angels sing.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffer'd long;
Beneath the angel-strain have roll'd
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring.
Oh! hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.
And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,-
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh! rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.
LMIGHTY Framer of the skies,
O let our pure devotion rise
Like incense in Thy sight!
Wrapt in impenetrable shade,
The texture of our souls was made,
Till Thy command gave light.
The Sun of glory gleam'd the rays,
Refined the darkness into days,
And bid the vapours fly;
Impell'd by His eternal love,
He left his palaces above,
To cheer our gloomy sky.
How shall we celebrate the day When God appeared in mortal clay The mark of worldly scorn? When the archangels' heavenly lays Attempted the Redeemer's praise, And hail'd Salvation's morn?
An humble form the Godhead wore,
The pains of poverty He bore,
To gaudy pomp unknown;
Though in a human walk he trod,
Still was the man Almighty God,
In glory all his own.
Despised, oppress'd, the Godhead bears
The torments of this vale of tears,
Nor bid His vengeance
He saw the creatures He had made
Revile His power, His peace invade-
He saw with Mercy's eyes.
LOVELY voices of the sky, That hymn'd the Saviour's birth! Are ye not singing still on high, Ye that sang, "Peace on earth?" To us yet speak the strains Wherewith, in days gone by, Ye bless'd the Syrian swains, O voices of the sky!
O clear and shining light, whose beams
That hour heaven's glory shed
Around the plains, and o'er the streams,
And on the shepherds' head-
Be near, through life and death,
As in that holiest night
Of hope, and joy, and faith,
O clear and shining light!
O star which led to Him, whose love
Brought down man's ransom free:
Where art thou?-'Midst the hosts above,
May we still gaze on thee?—
In heaven thou art not set,
Thy rays earth might not dim-
Send them to guide us yet!
O star which led to Him!
LYSIAN race! while o'er their slumbering
flocks
The Galilean shepherds watched, ye came
To sing hosannas to the heaven-born Babe,
And shed the brightness of your beauty round:
Nor have ye left the world, but still, unseen,
Surround the earth, as guardians of the good;
Inspiring souls, and leading them to heaven!
And oh when shadows of the state unknown
Advance, and Life endures the grasp of Death,
'Tis yours to hallow and illume the mind,
The starry wreath to bring, by angels worn,
And crown the spirit for her native sphere.
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