Sequence 4. Christmas

FOR the Gentiles up hath sprung
Light, for those that sate among
Darkness and in death's deep gloom.

Joys a people all forlorn,
That on earth a Child is born
From a spotless maiden's womb.

Guilty man to raise to heaven.
Condescends the God-man even
To our nature's misery.

Who would not with joy be praising,
Songs of wondering gladness raising,
Grace-work of such novelty ?

What is more full of bliss,
What is more fathomless,
Than such a mystery ?

How worthy all our praise,
How unlike human ways,
Is God's humiUty !

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 ! 2 5
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. 4°
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.