A Christmas Faggot

Excerpt

YULE TIDE.

TheRoyal Birthday dawns again,
A stricken world to bless;
And sufferers forget their pain,
And mourners their distress.

Love sings to-day; her eyes so fair
With happy tears are wet;
She is too humble to despair,
Too faithful to forget.

Her voice is very soft and sweet,
Her heart is brave and strong;
Her vassal, I would fain repeat
Some fragments of her song.

A Birthday-song my heart would sing
Its rapture to express;
My Father's son must be a king,
And share His consciousness.

Of God's Self-knowledge comes the Word
That utters all His Thought;
That Word made Flesh by all is heard
Who seek as they are sought.

His seeking and His finding make
Our search an easy thing;
He sows good seed, and bids us take
The joys of harvesting.

Yet must His children do their part,
And what He gives accept;
No heart can understand His Heart
That has not bled and wept.

All seasons, bring they bale or bliss,
His priceless treasures hold;
The Winter's silver all is His,
And His the Summer's gold.

Life's harvest is not reaped until
The Christ within has grown
To perfect manhood, and self-will
By love is overthrown.

Such manhood gained concludes the strife
That makes the babe a boy;
'T is thus the seed becomes a life,
The life becomes a joy.

The eyes that weep are eyes that see,
And swift are pilgrim-feet;
Ah! hope at length may come to be
Than memory more sweet.

So keeping festival to-day,
With children's laughter near,
It is not hard to sing and pray,
'T is hard to doubt or fear.

Father, my heart to Thee I bring,
To Thee my song address;
From Winter pain and toil of Spring
Grows Summer happiness.

Behold, by Raphael shown, Love's sacrament!
Earth's curtains part, God's veil is lifted up;
There comes a Child, forth from His Bosom sent
To rule the feast of life, His Bread and Cup,
His purpose making plain with man to sup.
Out-streams the light, accomplished is the Sign,
A Virgin-Mother clasps a Babe Divine.

Her lovely feet descend the cloudy stair,
Great succour bringing to a world forlorn;
On either side a man and woman share
A common rapture, welcoming the dawn
Of God's new day, the everlasting morn—
Of such a day as shall from East to West
Dispel the darkness, doing Love's behest.

He turns a face all radiant to the Sun,
Enamoured of the sight he looks upon;
She to the end of what is now begun
Downgazes, stooping, shadowed by the throne
Made by a Maiden's arms, maternal grown;
Than ivory most fair, than purest gold,
More pure, more fair, and stronger to uphold.

On cherubs twain, whom watching has made wise,
A spell has fallen—a prophetic dream;
Their upward-gazing and far-seeing eyes,
Like stars reflected in a tranquil stream,
To look beyond the Child and Mother seem;
A twisted thorn-branch and a cross to them
Are manifest—His throne and diadem....