ANCIENT OF DAYS

ANCIENT of days, Who sittest, throned in glory;

To Thee all knees are bent, all voices pray;

Thy love has blest the wide world's wondrous story,

With light and life since Eden's dawning day.

O Holy Father, Who hast led Thy children In all the ages, with the Fire and Cloud, Through seas dry-shod; through weary wastes bewildering;

To Thee, in reverent love, our hearts are bowed.

O Holy Jesus, Prince of Peace and Saviour, To Thee we owe the peace that still prevails,

Stilling the rude wills of men's wild behavior,

And calming passion's fierce and stormy gales.

O Holy Ghost, the Lord and the Life-giver, Thine is the quickening power that gives increase;

From Thee have flowed, as from a pleasant river,

Our plenty, wealth, prosperity, and peace.

O Triune God, with heart and voice adoring, Praise we the goodness that doth crown our days;

Pray we, that Thou wilt hear us, still imploring

Thy love and favor, kept to us always.

WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM

O 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.

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.

How silently, how silently,

The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings 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.

O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell; Oh come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel !

PHILLIPS BROOKS

IN GALILEE

ROMAN and Jew upon one level lie;
Great Herod's palaces are ground to dust;
Upon the synagogues are mould and rust;
Night winds among the tottering columns
sigh;

Yet sparrows through the massive ruins fly,

And o'er the sacred earth's embroidered crust

Still goes the sower forth to sow, still must The shepherd with his sheep sit listlessly. There towers the mountain where the Teacher spake

In those old times the sweet Beatitudes, Surviving kings and codes, fair words and feuds.

There creeps the Jordan to its destined lake,

The fisher casts his net into the sea,
And still the lilies bloom in Galilee.

MARY FRANCES BUTTS1

REINCARNATION

It cannot be that He who made

This wondrous world for our delight, Designed that all its charms should fade And pass forever from our sight; That all shall wither and decay,

And know on earth no life but this, With only one finite survey

Of all its beauty and its bliss.

It cannot be that all the years

Of toil and care and grief we live Shall find no recompense but tears,

No sweet return that earth can give; That all that leads us to aspire,

And struggle onward to achieve,
And every unattained desire
Were given only to deceive.

It cannot be that, after all

The mighty conquests of the mind, Our thoughts shall pass beyond recall And leave no record here behind; That all our dreams of love and fame,

And hopes that time has swept away, All that enthralled this mortal frame, Shall not return some other day.

It cannot be that all the ties

Of kindred souls and loving hearts
Are broken when this body dies,
And the immortal mind departs;
That no serener light shall break
At last upon our mortal eyes,
To guide us as our footsteps make
The pilgrimage to Paradise.

DAVID BANKS SICKELS

ROLL OUT, O SONG

ROLL out, O song to God! Move on, ye throngs of men ! Chances and changes come and go: God changeth not! Amen.

And on the throngs of men,
On worrying care and strife,
Sinks down, as if from angel tongues,
The word of hope and life.

Down in the darksome ways
And worrying whirl of life
Sinks, like a strain of vesper-song,
The thought of his great strife

Not knowing the things that shall befall me there. ACTS xx. 22.

I KNOW not what will befall me: God hangs a mist o'er my eyes;

And thus, each step of my onward path, He makes new scenes arise,

And every joy He sends to me comes like a sweet surprise.

I see not a step before me as I tread on another year;

But I've left the past in God's keeping, the future His mercy shall clear, And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near.

For perhaps the dreaded future is less bitter than I think;

The Lord may sweeten the waters before I stoop to drink;

Or, if Marah must be Marah, He will stand beside its brink.

It may be He keeps waiting, for the coming of my feet,

Some gift of such rare blessedness, some joy so strangely sweet,

That my lips shall only tremble with the thanks they cannot speak.

O restful, blissful ignorance! 't is blessed not to know;

It keeps me still in those mighty arms which will not let me go,

And lulls my weariness to rest on the bosom that loves me so.

So I go on not knowing, I would not if I might;

I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the light;

I would rather walk with Him by faith than walk alone by sight.

My heart shrinks back from trials which the future may disclose,

Yet I never had sorrow but what the dear Lord chose;

So I send the coming tears back with the whispered word, "He knows."

MARY GARDINER BRAINARD

TO ST. MARY MAGDALEN MID the white spouses of the Sacred Heart, After its queen, the nearest, dearest thou:

Yet the aureola around thy brow
Is not the virgins' - thine a throne apart.
Nor yet, my Saint, does faith-illumined

art

Thy hand with palm of martyrdom endow:
And when thy hair is all it will allow
Of glory to thy head, we do not start.
O more than virgin in thy penitent love!
And more than martyr in thy passionate
woe !

Who knelt not with thee on the gory sod, How should they now sit throned with thee above?

Or where the crown our worship could be

stow

Like that long gold which wiped the feet of God?

BENJAMIN DIONYSIUS HILL (Father Edmund, of the Heart of Mary, C. P.)

NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP1

And you came out with me to play;
And up and down the garden walks,
Among the flowering beans,

We proudly walked and tossed our heads
And played that we were queens.

Thrice prudent sovereigns, we made
The diadems we wore,

And fashioned for our royal hands
The sceptres which they bore;
But good Queen Bess
Had surely less

Than we, of proud self-consciousness,
While wreaths of honeysuckle hung
Around your rosy neck,
And tufts of marigold looped up
My gown, a "gingham check."

Our chosen land was parted out,
Like Israel's, by lot;

My kingdom, from the garden wall
Reached to the strawberry plot;

Beneath the cherry-tree was placed
Your throne, a broken chair;

Your realm was narrower than mine,
But it was twice as fair:
Tall hollyhocks,
And purple phlox,

And time-observing four-o'clocks,
Blue lavender, and candytuft,

And pink and white sweet peas,
Your loyal subjects, waved their heads
In every passing breeze.

Oh! gay and prosperous was our reign
Till we were called to tea;

But years, since then, have come and gone,
And I am forty-three!

Yet, journeying

On rapid wing,

Time has not brought, and cannot bring,
For you or me, a happier day

Than when, among the beans,

We proudly walked and tossed our heads, And fancied we were queens.

ANNIE DOUGLAS ROBINSON ("Marian Douglas")

MY LADDIE'S HOUNDS

(VIRGINIA MOUNTAINS)

THEY are my laddie's hounds

Can ony say

That rin the wood at brak o' day.
Wha is it taks them hence?

Wha is it taks my laddie's hounds
At brak o' day?

They cleek aff thegither,

An' then fa' back, wi' room atween For ane to walk; sae aften, I hae seen The baith cleek aff thegither

Wi' ane atween !.

THE CHILDREN

WHEN the lessons and tasks are all ended, And the school for the day is dis missed,

The little ones gather around me,

To bid me good night and be kissed:
Oh, the little white arms that encircle
My neck in their tender embrace!
Oh, the smiles that are halos of heaven,

Shedding sunshine of love on my face!