Christmas in Legend and Story | Page 5

to you: ye shall find a child wrapped in
swaddling-clothes lying in a manger."
And now, suddenly, before they could speak to the heavenly messenger,
they saw, not him alone, but the place full of the like heavenly beings.
A multitude was there; they came not as if from some distant place, but
as angels that ever stood round these shepherds. The eyes of the men
were opened, and they saw, besides the grassy slopes and feeding sheep,
and distant Bethlehem, and the stars above, a host of angels. Their ears
were opened, and besides the moving sheep and rustling boughs, they
heard from this great army of heavenly beings a song, rising to God and
falling like a blessing upon the sleeping world:--
"Glory to God in the highest And on earth peace, Good will to men."
In the lowly manger, a little child; on the hillside pasture, a heavenly
host singing His praises! Then it was once more quiet, and the darkness
was about the shepherds. They looked at one another and said,--"Let us
go, indeed, to Bethlehem, to see this thing that has come to pass, which
the Lord hath made us know."

So, in all haste, with the sound of that hymn of glory in their ears, they
left the pasture and sought the town. They went to the inn, but they
looked not there for the child; where the mangers were, there they
sought Him, and found Him lying, and by Him Joseph and Mary. There
were others by the new-born child, some who had doubtless come out
from the inn at hearing of the birth. "Whence are these shepherds?"
they might have said to themselves, "and what has brought them to this
birthplace?"
To all by the manger, the shepherds, their minds full of the strange
sight they had witnessed, recount the marvel. They tell how one
appeared with such brightness about him as in old times they had heard
gave witness that the Lord God would speak to His people; how their
fear at his presence was quieted by his strange and joyful words; and
how, when he had said, "Ye shall find a child wrapped in
swaddling-clothes, lying in a manger," they suddenly were aware of a
host of angels round about them sounding praise, to which God also
listened.
Those to whom they told these things were amazed indeed at the
strangeness. What did the marvel mean, they wondered. They could
know no more than the shepherds had told them, and as for these men,
they went away to their flocks again, praising God, for now they too,
had seen the child, and it was all true, and with their human voice they
caught up the song of rejoicing which had fallen from angelic lips.
There was one who heard it all, and we may think did not say much or
ask much, but laid it away in her heart. It was Mary, and she had, in the
treasure-house where she put away this wonder, other thoughts and
recollections in company with it. There, in her inmost heart, she kept
the remembrance of a heavenly visitor who had appeared to her when
she was alone, and had quieted her fear by words that told her of this
coming birth, and filled her soul with the thought that He whom she
should bear was to have the long-deserted throne and a kingdom
without end. She remembered how, when she visited her cousin
Elizabeth, she was greeted with a psalm of rejoicing that sprang to the
lips of that holy woman, and from her own heart had come a psalm of
response.
And now the child was born--born in the place of David, yet born to be
laid in a manger. A name had been given it by the angel, and she called

the child Jesus; for Jesus means Saviour, and "He shall," said the angel,
"save His people from their sins."

AS JOSEPH WAS A-WALKING
OLD ENGLISH CAROL
As Joseph was a-walking He heard an angel sing:-- "This night there
shall be born Our heavenly King.
"He neither shall be born In housen, nor in hall, Nor in the place of
Paradise, But in an ox's stall.
"He neither shall be clothèd In purple nor in pall; But in the fair, white
linen, That usen babies all.
"He neither shall be rockèd In silver nor in gold, But in a wooden
cradle That rocks on the mould.
"He neither shall be christened In white wine nor in red, But with fair
spring water With which we were christened."
Mary took her baby, She dressed Him so sweet, She laid Him in a
manger, All there for to sleep.
As she stood over Him She heard angels sing, "O bless our dear
Saviour, Our