Mother and maiden

Was never none but she!
Well might such a lady
God's mother be.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:
"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 unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel-sounds
The blessed angels sing.

But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
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!

For lo! the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When Peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

Edmund Hamilton Sears

"WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT"

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,

All seated on the ground,

The angel of the Lord came down,

And glory shone around.

"Fear not," said he, for mighty dread

Had seized their troubled mind; "Glad tidings of great joy I bring To you and all mankind.

"To you, in David's town, this day

Is born, of David's line,

The Saviour, who is Christ the Lord,
And this shall be the sign:

"The heavenly babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,

All meanly wrapped in swaddling bands,
And in a manger laid."

Thus spake the seraph; and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels, praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

"All glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;

Good will henceforth from Heaven to men
Begin and never cease."

Nahum Tate

"WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED"

Like small curled feathers, white and soft,
The little clouds went by,

Across the moon, and past the stars,
And down the western sky:
In upland pastures, where the grass
With frosted dew was white,
Like snowy clouds the young sheep lay,
That first, best Christmas night.

The shepherds slept; and, glimmering faint,
With twist of thin, blue smoke,

Only their fire's crackling flames

The tender silence broke

Save when a young lamb raised his head,
Or, when the night wind blew,
A nesting bird would softly stir,
Where dusky olives grew-

With finger on her solemn lip,

Night hushed the shadowy earth,

And only stars and angels saw

The little Saviour's birth;

Then came such flash of silver light
Across the bending skies,

The wondering shepherds woke, and hid
Their frightened, dazzled eyes.

And all their gentle sleepy flock
Looked up, then slept again,

Nor knew the light that dimmed the stars
Brought endless Peace to men-
Nor even heard the gracious words
That down the ages ring-

"The Christ is born! the Lord has come,
Good-will on earth to bring!"

Then o'er the moonlit, misty fields,

Dumb with the world's great joy,

The shepherds sought the white-walled town,

Where lay the baby boy

And oh, the gladness of the world,

The glory of the skies,

Because the longed-for Christ looked up

In Mary's happy eyes!

Margaret Deland

"BEFORE THE PALING OF THE STARS"

Before the paling of the stars,

Before the winter morn,

Before the earliest cockcrow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,

Cradled in a manger,

In the world His hands had made

Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep
In Jerusalem,

Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and Angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak

In the winter weather.

Jesus on His Mother's breast
In the stable cold,
Spotless Lamb of God was He,
Shepherd of the fold:

Let us kneel with Mary maid,
With Joseph bent and hoary,
With Saint and Angel, ox and ass,

To hail the King of Glory.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

"GOD REST YOU, MERRY GENTLEMEN"

God rest you, merry gentlemen,

Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy!
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour,
Was born on Christmas Day.

In Bethlehem, in Jewry,

This blessed babe was born,
And laid within a manger,
Upon this blessed morn;
The which His mother, Mary,
Nothing did take in scorn.