The mystery, ere the birth of time fore- The graves are opened, and the dead come doom'd, The Promise, hail'd afar, from age to age, By seer and prophet, beckoning into birth The empires. Hark! their voice which darkly spake Of trouble and vicissitudes on earth, With change of kingdoms, clearly heralds forth One realm, one nation, one Eternal King, Christ! Heard ye not the voice of joy, the voice As of a host, a multitude in heaven? Glory to God on high! Peace, peace on earth! Rejoice ye shepherds! ye, who nightly keep Your flock by Bethlehem! Lo, yon star! Come forth! Hail the desire of nations! From the east Come forth, ye Sages! for the expected birth Prepare rich offerings! Worship, earth, thy Lord, A babe within the manger. Give the King Of Glory entrance. Who goes forth in power? All nature hears the Omnipotent. Ye winds! Be still! Thou troubled ocean, sink to rest! Thou sick, be heal'd! Thou lame, stand up! Thou blind, Receive thy sight! Thon, in the grave, arise! come Administ'ring! Oh, thou art mock'd, yet dumb; Scourged, but without complaint. Ye know him not. Abraham, your father knew, and joy'd to see His day. Lo this, the only Son of God: Angel and man, bear witness of the God! And let thy soul, whose sins his sorrows wrought, MILMAN. Melt into tears, and grone in grieved thought. For thou wast born of woman! thou didst Appear'd, upborne on wings of fire, A seraph host-an angel quire! It came that glorious embassy, Ne'er flow'd such strains on earthly gale, For this, too, flam'd o'er Bethlehem, The brightest in night's diadem, That herald star whose pilot ray Illum'd the magi's doubtful way; Bright wanderer through the fields of air, Which led the enquiring sages where, Cradled within a worthless manger, Slept on that morn the immortal stranger. He might have come in regal pomp, His thunder, deep'ning, peal on peal, The trampling earthquake gone before him : He came not thus, no earthquake shock Shiver'd the everlasting rock; No trumpet blast, nor thunder peal, Made earth through all her regions reel; And but for the mysterious voicing Of that unearthly quire rejoicing: And but for that strange herald gem, The star which burn'd o'er Bethlehem, The shepherds, on his natal morn, H. K. WHITE. YET Once more, and once more, awake, my harp, From silence and neglect-one lofty strain; Lofty, yet wilder than the winds of Heaven, And speaking mysteries, more than words can tell, I ask of thee; for I, with hymnings high, Would join the dirge of the departing year. Yet with no wintry garland from the woods, Wrought of the leafless branch, or ivy sear, Wreathe I thy tresses, dark December! now; Me higher quarrel calls, with loudest song, And tearful joy, to celebrate the day Of the Redeemer.-Near two thousand suns Have set their seals upon the rolling lapse Of generations, since the day-spring first Beamed from on high !-Now to the mighty mass Of that increasing aggregate, we add Wars, famines, and the fury, Pestilence, Forcing the scanty portion from the weak, And steeping the lone widow's couch with tears. So has the year been character'd with wo In Christian land, and mark'd with wrongs and crimes; Yet 'twas not thus He taught not thus He liv'd, Whose birth we this day celebrate with prayer, And much thanksgiving.-He, a man of woes, Went on the way appointed,-path, though rude, Yet borne with patience still:-He came The broken-hearted, to raise up the sick, And when the soul was toss'd in troubled Wrapt in thick darkness and the howling storm, He, pointing to the star of peace on high, Arm'd it with holy fortitude, and bade it smile At the surrounding wreck.-— When with deep agony his heart was rack'd, Not for himself the tear-drop dew'd his cheek, For them He wept, for them to Heaven He pray'd, His persecutors-"Father, pardon them, Angels of Heaven Ye who beheld him fainting on the cross Amid the seraphim in light divine? For mercy, to accept the hymn of faith, The Christ, the Comforter, thine advent now, Fills my uprising soul.-I mount, I fly cedes, And care, and pain, and sorrow are no more. THE EPIPHANY. MRS. BARBAULD. DEEP in Sabea's fragrant groves retired, Long had they trained the enquiring youth, Derived from Egypt's elder race! And all that Greece, with copious learning fraught, Of fabled truths and rich poetic lore; Stars, plants and gems, and talismans they knew, And far was spread their fame, and wide their praises grew. The admiring East their praises spread : And oft in melancholy strain The fond complaint renewed, |