olemn
music takes us back to an earlier century:--

"Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!
Whereon the eternal Lord of all things made,
For us, poor mortals, and our endless bliss,
Came down from heaven; and, in a manger laid,
The first, rich, offerings of our ransom paid:
Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!"{46}

Not a few contemporary poets have given us Christmas carols or poems.
Among the freshest and most natural are those of Katharine Tynan, while
Mr. Gilbert Chesterton has written some Christmas lyrics full of colour
and vitality, and with a true mystical quality. Singing of Christmas, Mr.
Chesterton is at his best; he has instinctive sympathy with the spirit of
the festival, its human kindliness, its democracy, its sacramentalism,
its exaltation of the child:--

"The thatch of the roof was as golden
Though dusty the straw was and old;
The wind had a peal as of trumpets,
Though blowing and barren and cold. |86|

The mother's hair was a glory,
Though loosened and torn;
For under the eaves in the gloaming
A child was born."{47}

Thus opens a fine poem on the Nativity as symbolizing miracle of birth,
of childhood with its infinite possibilities, eternal renewal of faith
and hope.

|87| |88| |89|

CHAPTER IV

CHRISTMAS IN LITURGY AND POPULAR DEVOTION

Advent and Christmas Offices of the Roman Church--The Three Masses of
Christmas, their Origin and their Celebration in Rome--The Midnight
Mass in Many Lands--Protestant Survivals of the Night
Services--Christmas in the Greek Church--The Eastern Epiphany and the
Blessing of the Waters--The _Presepio_ or Crib, its Supposed
Institution by St. Francis--Early Traces of the Crib--The Crib in
Germany, Tyrol, &c.--Cradle-rocking in Mediaeval Germany--Christmas
Minstrels in Italy and Sicily--The _Presepio_ in Italy--Ceremonies
with the _Culla_ and the _Bambino_ in Rome--Christmas in Italian
London--The Spanish Christmas--Possible Survivals of the Crib in
England.

[Illustration:

THE NATIVITY.

From Add. MS. 32454 in the British Museum

(French, 15th century).]

From a study of Christmas as reflected in lyric poetry, we now pass to
other forms of devotion in which the Church has welcomed the Redeemer at
His birth. These are of two kinds--liturgical and popular; and they
correspond in a large degree to the successive w