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A

THOUSAND years have come and gone,
And near a thousand more,

Since happier light from heaven shone
Than ever shone before:

And in the hearts of old and young

A joy most joyful stirred,

That sent such news from tongue to tongue As ears had never heard.

2 Then angels on their starry way
Felt bliss unfelt before,

For news that men should be as they,
To darkened earth they bore;
So toiling men and spirits bright
A first communion had,

And in meek mercy's rising light
Were each exceeding glad.

3 And we are glad, and we will sing,
As in the days of yore;

Come all, and hearts made ready bring,
To welcome back once more
The day when first on wintry earth
A summer change began,
And dawning in a lowly birth,
Uprose the Light of man.

4 For trouble such as men must bear
From childhood to fourscore,

He shared with us, that we might share His joy for evermore;

And twice a thousand years of grief,

Of conflict, and of sin,

May tell how large the harvest sheaf
His patient love shall win.

Thomas T. Lynch, 1868

CAROL C. M. D.

R. Storrs Willis, 1849

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レ

A-men.

IT

T came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,

To touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, good-will to men,
From heaven's all-gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

2 Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
All still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world,
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er it's Babel-sounds
The blessed angels sing.

3 Yet with the woes of sin and strife,
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring:

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!

4 And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way,

With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:

O rest beside the weary road

And hear the angels sing!

5 For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendors fling,

And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Edmund H. Sears, 1850

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LITTLE town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie;

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by:
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;

The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.

2 For Christ is born of Mary;

And gathered all above, While mortals sleep, the angels keep Their watch of wondering love. O morning stars, together Proclaim the holy birth;

And praises sing to God the King, And peace to men on earth.

3 How silently, how silently,

The wondrous gift is given!

So God imparts to human hearts
The blessing of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

4 O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;

Cast out our our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.

We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel.

Phillips Brooks, 1868