Halted and burned in stellar reverence, Above a fold where wrapped in swaddling clothes A new-born infant in a manger lay; In humble contrast to the throne of light, He left to tread the th.o.r.n.y paths of earth; In undefiled and stainless innocence, Which earth with all her foul iniquities Might never tarnish nor pollute with sin.

Perhaps upon that sage triumvirate Which journeyed from the famed and affluent East, In regal pomp and rich munificence, To lay their costly presents at His feet And worship at that new-born infant's shrine, Thou shed'st thy mellow rays and lit the way O'er deserts to the hills of Bethlehem; Dividing honors with that prince of stars.

Wert thou a witness on that selfsame night When humble shepherds on Judea's hills, Watching their flocks with all attentive care, Beheld unwonted grandeur in the skies?

The ordinary stars were glittering In unaccustomed glory, and the orbs Which twinkle in that pale celestial train Which cleaves in twain the ambient universe, Had changed their milky hue to that of gold; But all the forms of stellar brilliancy Made way for that most bright and luminous Which glowed with holy radiance, which might Not emanate from aught but sacred star; Dispensing such serene magnificence That e'en the admiring heavens stood abashed.

At such a sight, Though savoring more of blessing than of curse, Small marvel 'twas their unenlightened minds Were seized with sudden and peculiar fear, So that their trembling knees together smote.

And as they stood In awestruck trepidation and alarm The heavens as the bifurcated door Of some familiar, hospitable tent, Parted their gorgeous curtains and disclosed A mult.i.tude of the celestial host, Numerous beyond all efforts to compute, Solemn of countenance, yet beautiful Beyond the comprehension of the eye, Surging in such immaculate array Of various raiment as the stainless white Of snows which countless centuries have placed On rugged Ararat's tremendous heights, Were blended in an essence!

Then for a moment's time The heavens were silent as those forms were fair; Then instantly throughout the realms of light Was heard a crash in sacred unison, As all the trumpets and the harps of heaven And all the varied instruments of earth Had burst in one grand, detonating chord; Now rose the quavering, vibratory tones Of flageolet and solitary reed; Now as a blending of all instruments In echoing harmonics, sweet and low, In soft reverberating resonance; The voice of cornet and sonorous horn Blent with the warbling accents of the flute And chime of mellow bells, unknown to earth; Paean of dulcimer and harpsichord In combination of concordant tone, Melting the stars with dulcet symphony.

But sweeter than those instruments of joy, Tuned by angelic fingers, rose the strains Of vocal concord and mellifluence, As swelled in chorus those seraphic throats In falling cadence and ecstatic flight, Surpa.s.sing heaven's grandest melody In all that appertains to choral song!

The acme of celestial harmony Which angel ears discerned with glad surprise; But sweeter than that song, the glad refrain Wafted from angel tongues innumerable, To earth and the inhabitants thereof, "Peace! Peace on Earth, the Deity's Good Will!"

Didst thou not shrink, when on Golgotha's crest Three crosses as three grizzly spectres rose, Spreading their ghastly arms protestingly, In silent malediction o'er the scene, And even nature paused and stood aghast In shuddering horror at the awful sight, Relaxing with the trembling earthquake shock Her sympathetic tension?

And when the lightning rent the canopy Of black sepulchral clouds, which like a shroud Enveloped earth on that terrific night, They lit a face compa.s.sionate and pure, E'en from beneath the cruel crown of thorns Glancing in pity, kindled not with wrath At his tormentors, those who loved him not-- The mult.i.tude which surged about the cross Cursing with accents vile and crying loud, Crucify Him! Crucify Him!

"Rejected and despised of men--"

Earth, which hath ever slain her n.o.blest sons, Slays also her Redeemer!

Creation is but systematized decay, And _Change_ is blazoned on the very skies, As in ephemeral telluric scenes, And through the whole cosmogony of worlds, Is written and rewritten!

Thou who hast seen the stately mastodon Roam at his will o'er earth's prolific plains, And the unwieldy megatherium Dragging his c.u.mbrous, disproportioned weight Through quaternary marsh and stagnant fen; Or watched the ichthyosaurus plow the seas, Churning the waters till the glistening foam Rode on the greenish undulating waves; And huge saurian and reptilian shapes Amphibious and pelagic, swim and crawl, Cleaving the waters with tremendous strokes, Writhing with foul contortions in disport, Splashing and laving in the thermal seas Of the remote and prehistoric past; Thou who hast seen them fail and pa.s.s away Shalt also shine when man has disappeared.

Thou who hast seen the rank luxuriance Of vegetation flourish and decay, Vanish and pa.s.s away insensibly, Perish from off the earth which nourished it, And time supplant its rich exuberance With arid wastes of bleak sterility; Wilt thou look down in silent unconcern When countless eons of denuding time Have rendered earth as barren as thyself, Bereft of verdure's last habiliment; When men, with all their pa.s.sions and desires, Their strange combines of evil and of good, Their proud achievements and exalted aims Have pa.s.sed away forever?

The universe is but a sepulcher For worlds defunct, as earth for living forms!

And thou, O Moon, who hast surveyed all this Thyself shalt be consumed with fervent heat, For e'en the firmament shall pa.s.s away.

Supreme Intelligence, Thou who createst worlds and satellites, (And Who canst estimate the universe) Weighing the heavens in Thy balances, Who hast ordained the laws of cosmic s.p.a.ce To guide aright the planetary spheres; Thou Ruler of the infinite and great, Alike of vast and infinitesimal; Thou fundamental cause of all that is, In process of creation and decay, In the mutation and the ravages Sequent of constant lapse and flight of time Reveal Thy laws that we may follow them: Help us to recognize in all Thy works, Whether of atom or stupendous ma.s.s, The hand of Deity.

FOOTNOTES:

[F] Atilla was believed by the early Christians to have been a scourge sent direct from G.o.d, and some historians aver that he himself encouraged the belief.

[G] Sodom and Gommorah.

FINIS.