A CHRISTMAS CAROL

What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! A wake the string!
Heart, ear, and eye, and everything
Awake! the while the active finger
Runs divisions with the singer.
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.
If we may ask the reason, say
The why, and wherefore all things here
Seem like the springtime of the year?
Why does the chilling winter's morn
Smile like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like to a mead new shorn,
Thus on the sudden? Come and see
The cause why things thus fragrant be:
'Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives light and luster, public mirth,
To heaven and the under earth.

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THE GUIDING STAR

As with gladness men of old
Did the guiding star behold,
As with joy they hailed its light,
Leading onward, beaming bright;
So, most gracious Lord, may we
Evermore be led by Thee.
As with joyful steps they sped
To that lowly manger bed,
There to bend the knee before
Him whom heaven and earth adore;
So may we with willing feet
Ever seek the mercy seat.
As they offered gifts most rare
At that manger rude and bare;
So may we with holy joy,
Pure and free from sin's alloy,
All our costliest treasures bring,
Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.
--William C. Dix.

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THE HOLY NIGHT
By Correggio (1493-1534)

Antonio Allegri Correggio, named from the Italian town in which he was born.

"We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem;
The dumb kine from their fodder turning there,
Softened their horned faces
To almost human gazes
Toward the newly born.
The simple shepherds from the starlit brooks
Brought visionary looks,
As yet in their astonied hearing, rung
The strange, sweet angel tongue;
The Magi from the East in sandals worn
Knelt reverent, sweeping round
With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground,
The incense, myrrh, and gold,
These baby hands are impotent to hold;
So let all earthlies and celestials wait
Upon thy royal state:
Sleep, O my kingly One!"
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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