In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV | Page 9

T o Thee, the world's great universal East,
The general and indifferent day.
_1 King._ All-circling point! all-centring sphere!
The world's one round eternal year:
_2 King._ Whose full and
all-unwrinkled face
Nor sinks nor swells with time or place;
_3 King._ But everywhere
and every while
Is one consistent solid smile,
_1 King._ Not vexed and tost,
_2
King._ 'Twixt spring and frost;
_3 King._ Nor by alternate shreds of
light;
Sordidly shifting hands with shades and night.
_Chorus._ O little All, in Thy embrace,
The world lies warm and likes his place;
Nor does his full globe fail to be
Kissed on both his cheeks by Thee;
Time is too narrow for Thy year,
Nor makes the whole world Thy half-sphere.

_Richard Crashaw._
A HYMN ON THE NATIVITY OF MY SAVIOUR.

I sing the birth was born to-night,
The author both of life and light;

The angels so did sound it.
And like the ravished shepherds said,

Who saw the light, and were afraid,
Yet searched, and true they found
it.
The Son of God th' eternal king,
That did us all salvation bring,

And freed the soul from danger;
He whom the whole world could not
take,
The Word, which heaven and earth did make,
Was now laid in
a manger.
The Father's wisdom willed it so,
The Son's obedience knew no No,

Both wills were in one stature;
And as that wisdom had decreed,

The Word was now made flesh indeed,
And took on Him our nature.
What comfort by Him do we win,
Who made himself the price of sin,

To make us heirs of glory!
To see this babe all innocence;
A
martyr born in our defence;
Can man forget the story?
_Ben Jonson._
AT CHRISTMAS.
All after pleasures as I rid one day,
My horse and I both tried, body
and mind,
With full cry of affections quite astray,
I took up in the
next inn I could find.
There, when I came, whom found I but my dear--
My dearest Lord;
expecting till the grief
Of pleasures brought me to Him; ready there

To be all passengers' most sweet relief?
O Thou, whose glorious, yet contracted light,
Wrapt in night's mantle,
stole into a manger;
Since my dark soul and brutish is Thy right,
To
man, of all beasts, be not Thou a stranger;
Furnish and deck my soul, that Thou may'st have
A better lodging
than a rock or grave.

The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it
feeds
Of thoughts and words and deeds;
The pasture is Thy word, the
stream Thy grace,
Enriching every place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Outsing the daylight hours.
Then we will chide the sun for letting
night
Take up his place and right:
We sing one common Lord; wherefore
He should
Himself the candle hold.
I will go searching till I find a sun
Shall stay till we have done;
A willing shiner, that shall shine as
gladly
As frost-nipt suns look sadly,
Then we will sing and shine all our
own day,
And one another pay.
His beams shall cheer my breast; and both so twine,
Till ev'n his
beams sing and my music shine.
_George Herbert._
NEW HEAVEN, NEW WAR.
Come to your heaven, you heavenly quires!
Earth hath the heaven of

your desires;
Remove your dwelling to your God,
A stall is now
His blest abode;
Sith men their homage do deny,
Come, angels, all
their fault supply.
This little Babe, so few days old,
Is come to rifle Satan's fold;
All
hell doth at His presence quake,
Though He himself for cold do shake;

For in this weak, unarméd wise
The gates of hell He will surprise.
My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;
Stick to the tents that He hath
pight;
Within His crib is surest ward,
This little Babe will be thy
guard;
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this
heavenly Boy.
_Robert Southwell._
FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.
Rejoice, rejoice, with heart and voice!
In Christé's birth this day
rejoice!
From Virgin's womb this day did spring
The precious seed
that only savéd man;
This day let man rejoice and sweetly sing,

Since on this day salvation first began.
This day did Christ man's soul
from death remove,
With glorious