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From Ottfried's Paraphrase of the Gospel

With her arms, and to her breast,
She embraced the Babe divine,
Her Babe divine the virgin-mother!
There lives not on this ring of earth
A mortal that can sing her praise.
Mighty mother, virgin pure,

In the darkness and the night

For us she bore the heavenly Lord.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

64.

THE VIRGIN'S CRADLE HYMN

Copied from a print of the Virgin in a Catholic village in Germany.

D

ORMI, Jesu! mater ridet

Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,

Dormi, Jesu! blandule!

Si non dormis, mater plorat,

Inter fila cantans orat,

Blande, veni, somnule.

Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling : ·
Mother sits beside thee smiling;
Sleep, my darling, tenderly;
If thou sleep not, mother mourneth,
Singing as her wheel she turneth:
Come, soft slumber, balmily!

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

65. BRIGHTEST AND BEST OF THE SONS

OF THE MORNING!

RIGHTEST and best of the sons of the morning! Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid! Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our Infant Redeemer is laid!

Cold on His cradle the dew-drops are shining;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining,

Maker and Monarch and Saviour of all.

Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,
Odours of Edom and offerings divine?
Gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation;

Vainly with gifts would His favour secure ; Richer by far is the heart's adoration;

Dearer to God are the prayers of the

poor.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning!
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid!
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,

Guide where our Infant Redeemer is laid!

REGINALD HEBER

66. THEY LEAVE THE LAND OF GEMS

AND GOLD

HEY leave the land of gems and gold,

TH

The shining portals of the East;

For Him, the woman's Seed foretold,
They leave the revel and the feast.

To earth their sceptres they have cast,
And crowns by kings ancestral worn;
They track the lonely Syrian waste;
They kneel before the Babe new born.

O happy eyes that saw Him first;
O happy lips that kissed His feet;
Earth slakes at last her ancient thirst;
With Eden's joy her pulses beat.

True kings are those who thus forsake
Their kingdoms for the Eternal King;

Serpent, her foot is on thy neck;

Herod, thou writhest, but canst not sting.

He, He is King, and He alone

Who lifts that infant hand to bless;

Who makes His mother's knee His throne,
Yet rules the starry wilderness.

AUBREY DE VERE

67. CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR BELLS

I

HE time draws near the birth of Christ :

TH

The moon is hid; the night is still;

The Christmas bells from hill to hill

Answer each other in the mist.

Four voices of four hamlets round,

From far and near, on mead and moor,
Swell out and fail, as if a door

Were shut between me and the sound:

Each voice four changes on the wind,

That now dilate, and now decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,

Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
This year I slept and woke with pain,
I almost wish'd no more to wake,
And that my hold on life would break
Before I heard those bells again :

But they my troubled spirit rule,

For they controll'd me when a boy;
They bring me sorrow touch'd with joy,

The merry, merry bells of Yule.

2

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Christmas and New Year Bells

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For these that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,

With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;

Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

ALFRED TENNYSON (from In Memoriam)

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