And woe for him, whose wakeful soul, Would have lived o'er some immortal scroll, And yet a deeper woe, For the watchers by the bed, Where the fondly loved, in pain lay low, For the mother, doom'd unseen to keep Darkness, in chieftain's hall! Darkness, in peasant's cot! While Freedom, under that shadowy pall, Oh! the fireside's peace we well may prize, Heap the yule-faggots high, Till the red light fills the room! It is home's own hour, when the stormy sky Grows thick with evening gloom. Gather ye round the holy hearth, And by its gladdening blaze, Unto thankful bliss we will change our mirth, With a thought of the olden days. HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS: OH! lovely voices of the sky Are sang, "Peace on earth"? To us yet speak the strains Wherewith, in time gone by, Ye bless'd the Syrian swains, Oh! voices of the sky! Oh! clear and shining light, whose beams That hour Heaven's glory shed, Around the palms, and o'er the streams, And on the shepherd's head. Be near, through life and death, As in that holiest night Oh! clear and shining light! Oh! star which led to Him, whose love Brought down man's ransom freeWhere art thou ?-'midst the host above, May we still gaze on thee? In Heaven thou art not set, Oh! star which led to Him! 25 CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST. "But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind was contrary." St. Matthew, xiv. 24: FEAR was within the tossing bark, And men stood breathless in their dread, But One was there, who rose and said And the wind ceased-it ceased!-that word And slumber settled on the deep, And silence on the blast, As when the righteous falls asleep, When death's fierce throes are past. |