godchildren and my people I have made them up into a
little bundle of sticks--a Christmas faggot to feed the fires in the
winter palace of our King.

It is the Incarnation that justifies all joy, and song is the expression
of joy. The Gospel Songs all celebrate the Great Nativity. Birth and
marriage are the occasions most sacred to mirth and music among men; and
Christmas is at once the Birthday and the Marriage Festival of Humanity.

Glad and thankful shall I be if any song of mine should help to fan the
flame of rejoicing love in any Christian heart at this holy and happy
season.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

YULE TIDE 1

THE MADONNA DI SAN SISTO 6

BETHLEHEM GATE 11

SAINT JOSEPH 16

A CRADLE SONG 18

A CRADLED CHILD 23

AN EMPTY CRADLE 26

NEW YEAR'S EVE 28

THE VICTIM 30

THE DAYSMAN 33

THE PHYSICIAN 36

THE POET 40

THREE SISTERS 43

A CHRISTMAS PUZZLE 46

FOUR EPIPHANIES 48

THE CHILDREN'S EUCHARIST 56

THE GOSPEL SONGS:

I. Benedictus 59

II. Magnificat 63

III. Nunc Dimittis 66

NOTES 69

_YULE TIDE._

'They bring me sorrow touched with joy,
The merry merry bells of Yule.'
TENNYSON, _In Memoriam_.

The Royal Birthday dawns again,
A stricken world to bless;
And sufferers forget their pain,
And mourners their distress.

Love sings to-day; her eyes so fair
With happy tears are wet;
She is too humble to despair,
Too faithful to forget.

Her voice is very soft and sweet,
Her heart is brave and strong;
Her vassal, I would fain repeat
Some fragments of her song.

A Birthday-song my heart would sing
Its rapture to express;
My Father's son must be a king,
And share His consciousness.

Of God's Self-knowledge comes the Word
That utters all His Thought;
That Word made Flesh b