Back to their homes returned, the Wise Men three
Reported on the King they went to see.
Said they: "The star our guide, the King we found;
Now are we hither come His praise to sound."
Then said the Wisest of them all: "'Tis well;
What was He like? First let the youngest tell."
"What was He like? Why, this my task
Is surely easy, answering what you ask.
He was so young: His was the spirit of youth,
Ardent and hopeful, forward-faced; in truth,
His courage seemed to leap from height to height,
Like golden sunshine driving back the night.
So I my beating heart obeyed;
My fine gold at His feet I laid."
"And you, our next in years, what did you see
In this your King? Pray, tell, what like was He?"
"What was He like? Yea, sir, although
Not as my brother saw Him saw I so.
His was our manhood's prime; from out His eyes
Experience looked, and wisdom: sacrifice
Waited the altar whereon lifted high,
Bruised but not crushed, He saw His destiny.
So drew I incense from my store,
Bruised too, but odorous the more."
"Well said! But you, our eldest, tell us, pray:
What was He like? How saw you Him that day?"
"What was He like? I saw Him sage
With all the gifts that spring from ripest age;
Eyes that beheld the eternal; youth and prime
Both clean forgot, with all the things of time;
Beyond all earthly effort, passion, strife;
Beyond all heart-ache, pain or lust of life.
I could not Him my myrrh deny,
In readiness with Him to die."
Then some, less wise than meet, looked up and smiled.
Surely, they said, our brethren were beguiled,
And took, for all their questing, but the thing
In their own hearts for Him, the Lord, the King.
"Nay, Nay!" the Wisest answered; "for I deem
The King fulfils for each his dearest dream,
Hear me, for though these mortal eyes are blind,
Within my soul I seem the King to find.
"As in a mirror's polished face
The lineaments of him that looks you trace,
So in the King reflected back you see
The likelihood of all you fain would be:
The all beyond your all, the goal
Of every striving of your soul.
"Whate'er your age or station be,
He looketh eye to eye, so that you see
The very self of self which God did plan
When first He said: 'Behold, I make a man.'
And with the vision given is the dower
Of the King's own communicable power."