150

Feasts and Fasts.

7s. M.

For Advent or Christmas.

BOWRING.

1 WATCHMAN! tell us of the night;
What its signs of promise are.
Traveller! o'er yon mountain's height
See that glory-beaming star!
Watchman! does its beauteous ray
Aught of hope or joy foretell?
Traveller! yes; it brings the day,
Promised day of Israel!

2 Watchman! tell us of the night;
Higher yet that star ascends.
Traveller! blessedness and light,
Peace and truth its course portends.
Watchman! will its beams alone

Gild the spot that gave them birth?
Traveller! ages are its own:

See! it bursts o'er all the earth.

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3 Watchman! tell us of the night,
For the morning seems to dawn.
Traveller! darkness takes its flight,
Doubt and terror are withdrawn.
Watchman! let thy wanderings cease;
Hie thee to thy quiet home.
Traveller! lo! the Prince of Peace,
Lo! the Son of God is come!

C. M.

ANONYMOUS.

Christmas Dymn.

1 CALM on the listening ear of night

Come heaven's melodious strains,
Where wild Judea stretches far
Her silver-mantled plains!

2 Celestial choirs, from courts above,
Shed sacred glories there;

And angels, with their sparkling lyres,
Make music on the air.

3 The answering hills of Palestine
Send back the glad reply,

And greet, from all their holy heights,
The day-spring from on high.

4 O'er the blue depths of Galilee
There comes a holier calm,

And Sharon waves, in solemn praise,
Her silent groves of palm.

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5 "Glory to God!" the sounding skies
Loud with their anthems sing;
"Peace to the earth, good-will to men,
From Heaven's eternal King."

6 Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!
The Saviour now is born!

And bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains
Breaks the first Christmas morn.

8 & 7s. M.

Christmas pmn.

CAWOOD.

1 HARK! what mean those holy voices,
Sweetly sounding through the skies?
Lo! the angelic host rejoices;
Heavenly hallelujahs rise.

2 Listen to the wond'rous story,
Which they chant in hymns of joy;
"Glory in the highest, glory!

Glory be to God most high!"

3 Peace on earth, good-will from heaven,
Reaching far as man is found;
Souls redeemed and sins forgiven;
Loud our golden harps shall sound.

4 "Christ is born, the great anointed;
Heaven and earth his praises sing!
O receive, whom God appointed
For your Prophet, Priest and King."

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5 Let us learn the wond'rous story
Of our great Redeemer's birth;
Spread the brightness of his glory,
Till it cover all the earth.

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The tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand forever;
That name to us is Love!

C. M.

Christmas Hymn.

PATRICK.

1 WHILE shepherds watched their flocks by night, All seated on the ground,

The angel of the Lord came down,

And glory shone around.

2 "Fear not," said he

for mighty dread

Had seized their troubled mind"Glad tidings of great joy I bring To you and all mankind.

3 "To you in David's town, this day,
Is born of David's line,

The Saviour, who is Christ the Lord;
And this shall be the sign.

4 "The heavenly babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,

All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid."

5 Thus spake the seraph, and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng

Of angels, praising God, and thus

Addressed their joyful song: