O faint not ye for fear

What though your wandering sheep,
Reckless of what they see and hear,

Lie lost in wilful sleep?

High heaven in mercy to your sad annoy
Still greets you with glad tidings of immortal joy.

Think on th' eternal home,

The Saviour left for you;

Think on the Lord most holy, come

To dwell with hearts untrue:

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
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold:-
"Peace on the earth-goodwill 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 unfurl'd,

And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on heavenly wing,
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

Yet 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

O 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 splendours fling,

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,
What can thy blithe music mean?
Like a hidden fount, thy singing

Seems to clothe the trees with green.

What warm nest for thee hath nature,
Where thy soft red breast to lay?
Sings't thou, little homeless creature
For the crumbs we strewed to-day?

Other birds have fled this dun light,
Soaring on to regions fair,
Singing in the richest sunlight,
Singing in the starlit air;

Hiding 'mid the broad-leaved shadows
Of the southern woods at noon,
Filling all the flower-starred meadows
With the melodies of June.

Knowest thou the woods have voices,

Poet-voices full and clear ;

-

Strains at which the heart rejoices

Feeling the Unspoken near;

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,
Like a daisy among birds,
With a quiet glee did sing

Strains condenséd thus in words:

"Well I know the joyous mazes
"Of the songs so full and fine;—
"Very faint would be God's praises,
"Sounded by no voice but mine!

"Yet the little child's sweet laughter
"Wakes it no responsive smile,
"Though the poet singeth after,

"And the angels all the while?

"What I sing I cannot measure,

Why I sing I cannot say, "But I know a well of pleasure "Springeth in my heart all day."

So I learned that crumbs are able
Lowly hearts to fill with song,-
Crumbs from off that festal table

Lowly hearts will join ere long.

He who wintry hours hath given,
With the snows gives snow-drops birth;
And while angels sing in heaven,

God hears robins sing on earth.

G

Only keep thee on the wing,
Music dieth in the dust,

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,
Christ, the true, the only light,
Sun of righteousness, arise,

Triumph o'er the shades of night;
Day spring from on high, be near,
Day star, in my heart appear.

Dark and cheerless is the morn,
Unaccompanied by Thee;
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.