I would I had in my best

part

Fit rooms for Thee! or that my heart

Were so clean as

Thy manger was!

But I am all filth, and obscene;

Yet, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make clean.

Sweet Jesu! will then; let no more
This leper haunt and soil Thy door!
Cure him, ease him,

Oh, release him!

And let once more, by mystic birth,

The Lord of life be born in earth.

O LOVELY Voices of the sky,

That hymned 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 blessed the Syrian swains,

O voices of the sky!

Henry Vaughan.

O clear and shining light, whose beams
That hour heaven's glory shed
Around the palms, 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!

Felicia Hemans.

ALL after pleasures as I rid one day,

My horse and I, both tired, body and mind, With full cry of affections, quite astray,

I took up in the next inn I could find.

There when I came, whom found I but my dear,
My dearest Lord, expecting till the grief
Of pleasures brought me to Him, ready there
To be all passengers' most sweet relief?

O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted light,
Wrapped in night's mantle, stole into a manger,
Since my dark soul and brutish is thy right,

To man of all beasts be not Thou a stranger!
Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou mayst have
A better lodging, than a rack or grave.

The shepherds sing, and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?

My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.

The pasture is Thy word; the streams, Thy grace
Enriching all the place.

Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Out-sing the daylight hours.

Then we will chide the sun for letting night

Take up his place and right:

We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
Himself the candle hold.

I will go searching, till I find a sun

Shall stay till we have done;

A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly,
As frost-nipt suns look sadly.

Then we will sing, and shine all our own day,

His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,

Till even his beams sing, and my music shine.

George Herbert.

CHRIST, whose redemption all does free,
Son of the Father, who alone,

Before the world began to be,

Didst spring from Him by means unknown;

Thou His clear brightness! Thou His light!
Thou everlasting hope of all!

Observe the prayers which in Thy sight
Thy servants through the world let fall.

O dearest Saviour, bear in mind,

That of our body Thou, a child, Didst whilom take the natural kind, Born of the Virgin undefiled!

This much the present day makes known,
Passing the circuit of the year,

That Thou from Thy high Father's throne
The world's sole safety didst appear.

The highest heaven, the earth and seas,
And all that is within them found,
Because He sent Thee us to ease,

With mirthful songs His praise resound.

We also, who redeemed are

With Thy pure blood from sinful state,

For this Thy birthday will prepare
New hymns this feast to celebrate.

Glory, O Lord, be given to Thee,
Whom the unspotted Virgin bore;
And glory to Thee, Father, be,

And the Holy Ghost, for evermore!

William Drummond.

My soul, why art thou thus deject?
And why art thou disturbed in me?
Trust thou in God; His aid expect:
Who is the only help for thee,
And doth thy sighs and sorrows see.

Oh, that He once the heavens would reave,
And so come down. For prophets tell,
Behold a Virgin shall conceive

A Son, fore-named Emmanuel,

Who shall descend with us to dwell.

And see that heavenly news comes down,
That joy to all men shall afford:
This day is born, in David's town,

A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,
According to His Holy Word.