Sequence 51. Nativity of St. John the Baptist

June 24TH.
LET the Church now in Thine honour
Celebrate once more the feast
Of the Baptist, Thy forerunner,
On his natal day, O Christ !

Thus we praise the King's own power
In His very herald's cry,
Whom He doth with virtues dower,
And by office magnify.

Gabriel a promise making
To the elder of a son;
When he doubted, power of speaking
Lost the unbelieving one.

Born the child is, the declarer,
Standard-bearer,
Trump, of law and monarch new.

A voice the Word precedes,
The bridegroom's man the bridegroom leads,
Star of morn, the sunrise too.

She by speaking,
He, signs making,
Both his parents name their son :
At which token
Fetters, broken.

Off his sire's dumb tongue were thrown.
John's birth was prognosticated
By a word from heaven come, '
And beforehand demonstrated,
While he yet was in the womb.

That o'er-ripened age conceiveth,
A suggestive lesson giveth ;
Dark truths declareth
That long-barren womb that beareth !

'Gainst the laws of nature truly
Was this John's conception wholly :
Such a birth must be
Grace's work, not nature's, solely.

In her womb a virgin-mother
Prisons God, which babe this other
From the womb's straits doth applaud.

Openly the voice, that crieth
In the waste, the Lamb descrieth,
Voice, the herald of the Word !

Bright his faith and clear his speech is,
And he many a thousand teaches.

And doth to the true light bring.
He its lantern, not that light, is ;
Christ that light for ever bright is,
Light that Hghteth everything.

Camels' hair his clothing made he,
Girded with a leathern zone ;
Locusts and wild honey had he
To support his life alone.

There hath not arisen any
Greater, — on Christ's testimony, —
Of a woman born than he:
Christ the one exception maketh,
In that flesh of flesh he taketh
Without fleshly agency.

Martyr holy !
Through we truly
Guilty are ; to honour thee
All-unworthy ;
So N ATI VITAS S. JOANNIS BAPTISTS.

NATIVITY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 8i
As thy praises
Fond hope raises,
Hear us of thy clemency,
We implore thee !

Now on this thy birthday give us
Gladness promised thence to come;
Nor of like delight deprive us
In thy laurelled martyrdom.

While such mystery
In thy history,
Lost in wonder, we revere.

May Christ through thee
Now renew the
Comfort of His presence here ! Amen.