A Hymn for Christmas Day With them the joyful tidings first begun JOHN BYROM 60. A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY ARK, the glad sound! the Saviour comes, Let every heart prepare a throne, And every voice a song! He comes, the prisoners to release In Satan's bondage held; The gates of brass before Him burst, The iron fetters yield. He comes, the broken heart to bind, And with the treasures of His T'enrich the humble poor. grace 61. A Hymn for Christmas Day Our glad Hosannas, Prince of Peace, With Thy belovèd name. PHILIP DODDRIDGE A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY ARK! how all the welkin rings, HA Glory to the King of kings! God and sinners reconciled! Joyful, all ye nations, rise, Join the triumph of the skies; Christ the Lord is born to-day. Christ, by highest Heaven adored; Pleased as man with men t' appear, Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace! 62. A Hymn for Christmas Day Born to give them second birth. CHARLES WESLEY THE SHEPHERDS WENT THEIR THER 'HE shepherds went their hasty way, Where the virgin-mother lay; And now they checked their eager tread, For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung, A mother's song the virgin-mother sung. They told her how a glorious light, She listened to the tale divine, And closer still the Babe she pressed; Joy rose within her, like a summer's morn; The Shepherds went their Hasty Way Thou mother of the Prince of Peace, O why should this thy soul elate? Sweet music's loudest note, the poet's story,Didst thou ne'er love to hear of fame and glory? And is not War a youthful king, A stately hero clad in mail? Beneath his footsteps laurels spring; Him earth's majestic monarchs hail Their friend, their playmate ! and his bold bright eye Compels the maiden's love-confessing sigh. 'Tell this in some more courtly scene To maids and youths in robes of state! I am a woman poor and mean, And therefore is my soul elate. War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled, A murderous fiend by fiends adored, He kills the sire and starves the son; The husband kills, and from her board Steals all his widow's toil had won; Plunders God's world of beauty; rends away All safety from the night, all comfort from the day. The Shepherds went their Hasty Way Then wisely is my soul elate, That strife should vanish, battle cease; I'm poor and of a low estate, The mother of the Prince of Peace. Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn : Peace, peace on earth! the Prince of Peace is born.' SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 63. FROM OTTFRIED'S PARAPHRASE OF THE GOSPEL HE gave with joy her virgin breast; SHE She hid it not, she bared the breast Which suckled that divinest Babe! And blessed, blessed was the mother Who wrapp'd His limbs in swaddling clothes, Singing placed Him on her lap, Hung o'er Him with her looks of love, From the damp and chilling air; Blessed, blessed! for she lay With such a Babe in one blest bed, With her virgin lips she kiss'd, |