Sequence 3. Christmas. Is

SINCE a Saviour is born for us,
With the angels in glad chorus
Let our race unite to-day :
Sweetly sound such hymns uprising,
Different voices harmonizing
All their praises in one lay.

Happy day, when the Supernal,
With the Father co-eternal,
Of a Virgin comes to birth !

Day of j oy and j ubilation, i o
When the bright illumination
Of the true Sun lights glad earth !

God hath a Redeemer given,
His, the Father's, Son from heaven.

That the sinner should not die :
It is grace alone, not merit.

Gives us new life through the Spirit,
Visiting God's family.

i6 NATI VITAS DOMINI.
Infinite and in all places,
He, whom sense and earth's wide spaces
Comprehend not nor contain,
Though eternal, time obeyeth,
And, though everywhere, here stayeth,
All things to restore again !

He sin's form, without sin, weareth,
And, to be made like us, shareth
Our worn-out existence here \
That the temporal and eternal,
That the spiritual and carnal.

Natures might thus linked appear.
So the Word and Flesh and Spirit
Doth one Person thus inherit
In mysterious union,
That no change its nature showeth.

Nor two-fold that Person groweth,
But is altogether one.

This great mystery lies ever
Hidden from man's base deceiver,
And at fault his malice is ;
That the wisdom of the Godhead
'Neath the veil of flesh is shrouded
Our blind enemy ne'er sees.

c
l8 NATIVITAS DOMINI.

Hujus nodum sacramenti
This deep mystery's complication
No abstruse investigation
By induction can explain.

'Tis not mine to know its measure,
But I wot that God's good pleasure
Rules where reason cannot strain.

O how deep the counsel of God appears !
How sublime the mystery it declares !

Rod a flower,
Fleece a shower,
And a Son a Virgin bears.

Her conception hurt not her chastity,
Nor its blooming that ever verdant tree ;
In conceiving
And birth-giving,
Lily-like, still pure is she !

Mary, star of ocean ! giving
To this shipwrecked age we live in '
After God its hope alone !

See what rival machinations,
And what fierce and dire temptations
Vex us sorely every one.

Virtue unto us be given,
And demonic pride be driven
Far away from us by Thee ;
To thine offspring O commend us,
Lest His brief but most tremendous
Sentence crush us utterly.

Jesu, Who art our salvation,
Who its wondrous operation
With such wisdom watchest o'er !

Those, who keep this day, defending,
Here Thy help to them extending,
Grant them joy for evermore !