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CHRISTMAS LULLABY

Sleep, baby, sleep. The mother sings:
Heaven's angels kneel and fold their wings.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
With swaths of scented hay Thy bed
By Mary's hand at eve was spread.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
At midnight came the shepherds, they
Whom seraphs wakened by the way.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
And three kings from the East afar,
Ere dawn, came, guided by the star.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
They brought Thee gifts of gold and gems,
Pure orient pearls, rich diadems.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
But Thou who liest slumbering there,
Art King of kings, earth, ocean, air.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
Sleep, baby, sleep. The shepherds sing:
Through heaven, through earth, hosannas ring.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
--John Addington Symonds.

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THE STAR

They followed the star the whole night through;
As it moved with the midnight, they moved, too;
And cared not whither it led, nor knew,
Till Christmas day in the morning.
We have followed the star a whole long year,
And watched it beckon, now faint, now clear,
And now it stands still as we draw near
To Christmas day in the morning.
And just as the wise men did of old,
In the hush of the winter's dawning, cold,
We come to the stable, and we behold
The Child on the Christmas morning.
And just as the wise men deemed it meet
To offer Him gold and perfumes sweet,
We would lay our gifts at His holy feet,
Our gifts on Christmas morning.
O Babe, once laid in the oxen's bed,
With never a pillow for Thy head,
Now throned in the highest heaven instead,
O Lord of the Christmas morning!
Because we have known and have loved Thy star
And have followed it long and have followed it far
From the land where the shadows and darkness are
To find Thee on Christmas morning,--
Accept the gifts we dare to bring,
Though worthless and poor the offering,
And help our souls to rise and sing
On Christmas day in the morning.

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MADONNA AND CHILD By Sichel


"All my heart this night rejoices
As I hear, far and near,
Sweetest angel voices:
'Christ is born!' their choirs are singing,
Till the air everywhere
Now with joy is ringing."
--Paul Gerhardt

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