O faint not ye for fear What though your wandering sheep, High heaven in mercy to your sad annoy Think on th' eternal home, The Saviour left for you; Think on the Lord most holy, come So shall ye tread untir'd His pastoral ways, And in the darkness sing your carol of high praise. Christian Year. A Christmas Carol. T came upon the midnight clear The world in solemn stillness lay Still through the cloven skies they come, And still their heavenly music floats Above its sad and lowly plains They bend on heavenly wing, Yet with the woes of sin and strife And ye, beneath life's crushing load O rest beside the weary road, For lo! the days are hastening on, And the whole world send back the song Which now the angels sing. E. H. Sears. Robins and their Songs. OBIN, to the bare bough clinging, Seems to clothe the trees with green. What warm nest for thee hath nature, Other birds have fled this dun light, Hiding 'mid the broad-leaved shadows Knowest thou the woods have voices, Pouring music like a river, Many-toned and deep and strong, Tones 'midst which, like childhood's quiver, Thy few notes of simple song? Then the "crimson-tipped" thing, Strains condenséd thus in words: "Well I know the joyous mazes "Yet the little child's sweet laughter "What I sing I cannot measure, So I learned that crumbs are able Lowly hearts will join ere long. He who wintry hours hath given, And while angels sing in heaven, God hears robins sing on earth. G Only keep thee on the wing, Nothing that but creeps can sing, Soaring, we can sing and trust. E. C. Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant. HRIST, whose glory fills the skies, Triumph o'er the shades of night; Dark and cheerless is the morn, Joyless is the day's return, Till Thy mercy's beams I see, Till they inward light impart, Glad my eyes and warm my heart. Visit then this soul of mine, Pierce the gloom of sin and grief, Fill me, radiancy divine, Scatter all my unbelief; More and more Thyself display, Shining to the perfect day. |