ike wind-worn trees, are bent
Beneath the savage storms of time--
Pray Christ, the Child, to be your guide
Past the dim shoal, where shadows bide.

O saving hands! O Christ, that hears
A mortal mother's lullabies;
That feels our agony and tears,
Whose bosom trembles with our sighs,
Give us pure hearts and undefiled,
Make us like thee, O Christ, the Child!

_Unknown._

[Illustration]

Hark! how all the welkin rings,
Glory to the King of kings!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinner reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Universal nature say,
Christ the Lord is born to-day.

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a Virgin's womb;
Veil'd in flesh and Godhead see;
Hail, th' Incarnate Deity!
Pleased as man with men t' appear,
Jesus, our Immanuel here!

Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace!
Hail! the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

_Charles Wesley._

God rest ye, merry gentlemen; let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day.
The dawn rose red o'er Bethlehem, the stars shone through the gray,
When Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day.

God rest ye, little children; let nothing you affright,
For Jesus Christ, your Saviour, was born this happy night;
Along the hills of Galilee the white flocks sleeping lay,
When Christ, the Child of Nazareth, was born on Christmas-day.

God rest ye, all good Christians; upon this blessed morn
The Lord of all good Christians was of a woman born:
Now all your sorrows He doth heal, your sins He takes away;
For Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas-day.

_Dinah Maria Mulock._

[Illustration]

There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which
I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am
sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come
round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin,
if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time;
a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know
of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one
consent to open their shut-up hearts