cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled;
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world:
Above its sad and lonely plains
They bend on hovering wing.
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

O ye beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow!
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
Oh, rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.

For lo, the days are hastening on,
By prophets seen of old,
When with the ever-circling years,
Shall come the time foretold,
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace their King,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.
--_Edmund H. Sears_.

{26}

BRIGHTEST AND BEST

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid.
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.

Cold on His cradle the dew-drops are shining,
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,
Maker, and Monarch, and Saviour of all.

Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion,
Odors of Edam, and offerings divine,
Gems of the mountain, and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest, or gold from the mine?

Vainly we offer each ample oblation;
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure:
Richer by far is the heart's adoration;
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid.
Star of the East, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
--_Reginald Heber_.

{27}{28}

[Illustration]
BETHLEHEM.

From a picture owned by the Detroit Photograph Company,
and used by its kind permission.

This picture shows the town, looking in
from the Church of the Nativity.
[End illustration]

{29}

THE THREE KINGS.

There came three kings, ere break of day,
All on Epiphanie;
Their gifts they bare all rich and rare,
All, all, Lord Christ, for Thee:
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh are there,
Where is the King? O where? O where?

The star shone brightly overhead,
The ai