BROWN LARK AND BLACKBIRD.

O brown lark, loving cloud-land best,
And sun-smit seas of sky,

Thee doth a musical unrest

Drive to rise upward from thy nest

Far fathoms high.

O fluid-fluting blackbird, keep

The midnight of thy wing

Close to my home, where leaves grow deep, Since where two lovers lie asleep,

Thou lov'st to sing.

A CHRISTMAS HYMN.

E. H. SEARS.

C

ALM on the listening ear of night
Come heaven's melodious strains,
Where wild Judea stretches far
Her silver-mantled plains.

Celestial choirs from courts above
Shed sacred glories there;

And angels, with their sparkling lyres,
Make music on the air.

The answering hills of Palestine
Send back a glad reply,

And greet from all their holy hights
The Dayspring from on high.

O'er the blue depths of Galilee
There comes a holier calm;
And Sharon waves in solemn praise
Her silent groves of palm.

"Glory to God!" the sounding skies Loud with their anthems ring:

"Peace on the earth--good-will to men From Heaven's Eternal King."

Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!

The Savior now is born!

More bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains Breaks the first Christmas morn;

And brighter on Moriah's brow,
Crowned with her temple spires,
Which first proclaim the newborn light,
Clothed with its orient fires.

This day shall Christian tongues be mute,
And Christian hearts be cold?

O catch the anthem that from heaven
O'er Judah's mountains rolled!

When nightly burst from seraph harps
The high and solemn lay,---
"Glory to God; on earth be peace;
Salvation comes to-day!"