2.

CHRISTMAS EVE: COMPLINE.

"Rejoice in the Lord alway."

REJOICE in God alway,

With stars in Heaven rejoice,
Ere dawn of Christ's own day
Lift up each little voice.
Look up with pure glad eye,

And count those lamps on high.

Nay, who may count them,? on our gaze

They from their deeps come out in ever widening

maze.

Each in his stand aloof

Prepares his keenest beam,

Upon that hovel roof,

In at that door, to stream,

Where meekly waits her time

The whole earth's Flower and Prime

Where in few hours the Eternal One

Will make a clear new day, rising before the sun.

Such garland grave and fair
His Church to-day adorns.
And mark it well-even there

He wears His crown of thorns.

Should aught profane draw near,
Full many a guardian spear

Is set around, of power to go

Deep in the reckless hand, and stay the grasping Foe.

Rejoice in God alway,

With Powers rejoice on high,

Who now with glad array

Are gathering in the sky,

His cradle to attend,

And there all lowly bend.

But half so low as He hath bowed

Did never highest Angel stoop from brightest cloud.

Rejoice in God alway,

All creatures, bird and beast,

Rejoice, again I say,

His mightiest and His least;

From ox and ass that wait

Here on His poor estate

To the four living Powers, decreed

A thousand ways at once His awful car to speed.

Rejoice in God alway:

With Saints in Paradise

Your midnight service say,
For vigil glad arise.

Even they in their calm bowers

Too tardy find the hours

Till He reveal the wondrous Birth:

How must we look and long, chained here to sin and

earth!

Ye babes, to JESUS dear,

Rejoice in Him alway.

Ye whom He bade draw near,

O'er whom He loved to pray,

Wake and lift

up the head

Each in his quiet bed.

Listen: His voice the night-wind brings:

He in your cradles lies, He in our carols sings.

3.

CHRISTMAS DAY.

(While waiting on an Infant at home.)

"Behold, I and the children which God hath given me."

THOU, who didst choose thine awful room
Within the undefiled womb,-

The bridal chamber, where our God

For spousals high made brief abode,
High spousals, evermore to bind

The Godhead with our fallen kind :

Now while the o'erarching clouds among

Echoes the Angels' matin song,

While, heart and hand,

In every land

The Saints their sacrifice prepare

The Cradle to adore of Heaven's dread Heir,

Behold where in the silent shade

Thy slumbering little ones till matin prime are laid.