e hither, ye faithful," literally construing the Latin words.

The following is substantially Oakeley's English of the "Adeste,
fideles."

O come all ye faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
To Bethlehem hasten now with glad accord;
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels.

CHORUS.
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ, the Lord.

Sing choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation
Through Heaven's high arches be your praises poured;
Now to our God be
Glory in the highest!
O come, let us adore Him!

Yea, Lord, we bless Thee,
Born for our salvation
Jesus, forever be Thy name adored!
Word of the Father
Now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him!

The hymn with its primitive music as chanted in the ancient churches,
was known as "The Midnight Mass," and was the processional song of the
religious orders on their way to the sanctuaries where they gathered in
preparation for the Christmas morning service. The modern tune--or
rather the tune in modern use--is the one everywhere familiar as the
"Portuguese Hymn." (See page 205.)

MILTON'S HYMN TO THE NATIVITY.

It was the winter wild
While the Heavenly Child
All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies.
Nature in awe of Him
Had doffed her gaudy trim
With her great Master so to sympathize.

* * * * *

No war nor battle sound
Was heard the world around.
The idle spear and shield were high uphung.
The hooked chariot stood
Unstained with hostile blood,
The trumpets spake not to the armed throng,
And Kings sat still with awful eye
As if they knew their Sovereign Lord was by.

This exalted song--the work of a boy of scarcely twenty-one--is a Greek
ode in form, of two hundred and sixteen lines in twenty-seven strophes.
Some of its figures and fancies are more to the taste of the seventeenth
century than to ours, but it is full of poetic and Christian
sublimities, and its high periods will be heard in the Christmas hymnody
of coming centuries, though it is not the fashion to sing it now.

John Milton, son and grandson of John Miltons, was born in Breadstreet,
London, Dec. 9, 1608, fitted for the University in St. Paul's school,
and studied seven years at Cambridge. His parents intended