"PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS." EPH. V. 19. WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT. | That He our deadly forfeit should release, WATCHMAN, tell us of the night- Watchman, tell us of the night- Gild the spot that gave them birth? Traveller, ages are its own See, it bursts o'er all the earth! 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 Traveller, darkness takes its flight-Doubt and terror are withdrawn.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 wandering cease; Hie thee to thy quiet home. Traveller, lo! the Prince of PeaceLo! the Son of God, is come. SIR JOHN BOWRING. And with His Father work us a perpetual peace. II. That glorious form, that light unsufferable, To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, III. Say, heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome Him to this His new abode, Now while the heav'n, by the sun's team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright? ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S NATIVITY. I. IV. See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet: THIS is the month, and this the happy Oh run, prevent them with thy humble ode, morn, Wherein the Son of heav'n's eternal King, Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, And lay it lowly at His blessed feet; greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel quire, From out His secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire. Should look so near upon her foul de- Until their Lord Himself bespake, and bid The idle spear and shield were high up Or e'er the point of dawn, hung, The hooked chariot stood Unstain'd with hostile blood, The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng, And kings sat still with awful eye, Sat simply chatting in a rustic row; Full little thought they then That the mighty Pan Was kindly come to live with them below; Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep, As if they surely knew their sov'reign Lord Was all that did their silly thoughts so As all their souls in blissful rapture Move in melodious time, took; The air such pleasure loath to lose, And let the base of heav'n's deep organ blow; With thousand echoes still prolongs each And with your ninefold harmony heavenly close. Make up full consort to th' angelic symphony. X. Nature that heard such sound, Beneath the hollow round XIV. For if such holy song Of Cynthia's seat, the airy region thrill- Inwrap our fancy long, ing, Now was almost won To think her part was done, Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold; And speckled Vanity And that her reign had here its last Will sicken soon and die, fulfilling ; She knew such harmony alone And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mould; Could hold all heav'n and earth in happier And Hell itself will pass away, union. And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day. XI. At last surrounds their sight A globe of circular light, XV. That with long beams the shamefaced Yea Truth and Justice then night array'd; The helmed Cherubim, And sworded Seraphim, Will down return to men, Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing, Are seen in glittering ranks with wings Mercy will sit between, But when of old the sons of morning But wisest Fate says, no, sung, While the Creator great His constellations set, This must not yet be so, The Babe lies yet in smiling infancy, That on the bitter cross And the well-balanced world on hinges Must redeem our loss; hung; And cast the dark foundations deep, And bid the welt'ring waves their oozy channel keep. So both Himself and us to glorify; XXV. He feels from Juda's land The dreaded Infant's hand, Rapt into future times the bard begun : A Virgin shall conceive-a Virgin bear a The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky From Jesse's root behold a Branch arise Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills eyn: Nor all the gods beside, Longer dare abide, Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: XXVI. So when the sun in bed, Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, Troop to th' infernal jail, the skies: Th' Ethereal Spirit o'er its leaves shall And on its top descends the mystic Dove. pour, And in soft silence shed the kindly shower! The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade. All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail; Each fetter'd ghost slips to his several Returning Justice lift aloft her scale, grave; And the yellow-skirted Fayes Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their And white-robed Innocence from heaven moon-loved maze. XXVII. But see the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to rest, descend. Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected morn! Oh spring to light, auspicious Babe, be born! Time is our tedious song should here See, Nature hastes her earliest wreaths to have ending; Heav'n's youngest teemèd star Hath fix'd her polish'd car, bring, With all the incense of the breathing spring: Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp See lofty Lebanon his head advance; |