Christmas Sunshine

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Title: Christmas Sunshine
Author: Various
Release Date: January 15, 2007 [EBook #20378]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS SUNSHINE ***
Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy, Juliet Sutherland and the?Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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CHRISTMAS?SUNSHINE
BUFFALO NEW YORK?THE HAYES LITHOGRAPHING CO.
Do the angels know the blessed day,?And strike their harps anew??Then may the echo of their lay?Float sweetly down to you,?And fill your soul with Christmas song?That your heart shall echo your whole life long.
_Havergal._
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A bright and happy Christmas to you! Lift up yourselves to the great meaning of the day, and dare to think of your humanity as something so sublimely precious that it is worthy of being made an offering to God, and then go out to the pleasures and duties of your life, having been truly born anew into His Divinity, as He was born into our humanity on Christmas Day.
_Phillips Brooks._
Most tangible of all the gods that be,?O Santa Claus--our own since infancy!--?As first we scampered to thee--now, as then,?Take us as children to thy heart again.
_Riley._
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Then welcome snow of Christmas,?We read thy prophecy,?We know what wish lies hidden,?What germs of life may be?Concealed beneath thy mantle,?All folded close away,?Awaiting their fruition,?In heaven's eternal day.
_M. C. O._
One wish ere yet the long year ends;?Let's close it with a parting rhyme,?A pledge, a hand, to all our friends?As fits the merry Christmas time:?On life's wide scene you, too, have parts,?That Fate ere long shall bid you play;?Good-night: with honest, gentle hearts,?A kindly greeting go alway.
_Thackeray._
It was the winter wild,?While the heaven-born child?All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies:?Nature, in awe to him?Had doff'd her gaudy trim,?With her great Master so to sympathize:?It was no season then for her?To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.
Only with speeches fair?She wooes the gentle air?To hide her guilty front with innocent snow:?And on her naked shame,?Pollute with sinful blame,?The saintly veil of maiden white to throw;?Confounded, that her Maker's eyes?Should look so near upon her foul deformities.
But he, her fears to cease,?Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace;?She, crowned with olives green, came softly sliding?Down through the turning sphere?His ready harbinger,?With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing;?And, waving wide her myrtle wand,?She strikes a universal peace through sea and land.
No war or battle's sound,?Was heard the world around;?The idle spear and shield were high up hung,?The hooked chariot stood,?Unstained with hostile blood;?The trumpet spake not to the armed throng;?And kings sat still with awful eye,?As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.
But peaceful was the night,?Wherein the Prince of light?His reign of Peace upon the earth began:?The winds with wonder whist?Smoothly the waters kist,?Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,?Who now hath quite forgot to rave,?While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
_Milton._
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Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes?Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,?The bird of dawning singeth all night long;?And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,?The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,?No fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm,?So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
_Shakespeare._
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O HOLY Child of Bethlehem!?Descend to us, we pray;?Cast out our sin, and enter in,?Be born in us to-day.?We hear the Christmas angels?The great glad tidings tell;?Oh come to us, abide with us,?Our Lord Emmanuel!
_Phillips Brooks._
Swell the notes of the Christmas Song!?Sound it forth through the earth abroad!?Blessing and honor, thanks and laud!?Take the joy of the Christmas Song!?Are not the tidings good and true??Peace to you,?And God's good will that is ever new.
_Havergal._
You little children, in whose eyes?Undimmed the light of heaven glows,?Whose dreams are bright with paradise,?Whose souls are whiter than the snows,?From holy lips and undefiled,?Breathe your soft prayer to Christ, the Child!
And you whose thinning locks are sprent?With unreturning autumn's rime,?Whose heads, like wind-worn trees, are bent?Beneath the savage storms of time--?Pray Christ, the Child, to be your guide?Past the dim shoal, where shadows bide.
O saving hands! O Christ, that hears?A mortal mother's lullabies;?That feels our agony and tears,?Whose bosom trembles with our sighs,?Give us pure hearts and undefiled,?Make us like thee, O Christ, the Child!
_Unknown._
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Hark! how all the welkin rings,?Glory to the King of kings!?Peace on earth, and mercy mild,?God and sinner reconciled!?Joyful, all ye nations, rise,?Join the triumph of the skies;?Universal nature say,?Christ the Lord is born to-day.
Christ, by highest heaven adored;?Christ, the everlasting Lord;?Late in time behold Him come,?Offspring of a Virgin's womb;?Veil'd in flesh and Godhead see;?Hail, th' Incarnate Deity!?Pleased as man with men t' appear,?Jesus, our Immanuel here!
Hail! the heavenly Prince