22. The Three Kings

Who are these that ride so fast o'er the desert's
sandy road,
That have tracked the Red Sea shore, and have swum
the torrents broad;
AYhose camel's bells are tinkling through the long
and starry night —
For they ride like men pursued, like the vanquished
of a fight?

Who are these that ride so fast? They are eastern
monarchs three,
AVho have laid aside their crowns, and renounced
their high degree;
The eyes they love, the hearts they prize, the well-
known voices kind.
Their people's tents, their native plains, they've left
them all behind.

The very least of faith's dim rays beamed on them
from afar.
And that same hour they rose from off their thrones
to track the Star:

They cared not for the cruel scorn of those who
called them mad;
Messias' Star was shining, and their royal hearts
were glad.

Ko Bibles and no books of God were in that eastern
land,
No Pope, no blessed Pope had they, to guide thera
with his hand;
No Holy Roman Church was there, with its clear
and strong sunshine,
^yith its voice of truth, its arm of power, its sacra-
ments divine.

But a speck was in the midnight sky, uncertain,
dim, and far,
And their hearts were pure, and heard a voice pro-
claim Messias' Star:
And in its golden twinkling they saw more than
common light.
The Mother and the Child they saw in Bethlehem
by night!

And what were crowns, and w^hat were thrones, to
such a sight as that?
So straight away they left their tents, and bade not
grace to wait;
They hardly stop to slake their thirst at the desert's
limpid springs,
Nor note how fair the landscape is, how sweet the
skylark sings!

Whole cities have turned out to meet their royal
cavalcade,
Wise colleges and doctors all their wisdom have dis-^
played;
And when the Star was dim, they knocked at Herod's
palace gate,
And troubled with the news of faith his politic
estate.

And they have knelt in Bethlehem! The Everlast-
ing Child
They saw upon His mother's lap, earth's monarch
meek and mild;
His little feet, with Mary's leave, they pressed with
loving kiss, —
Oh what were thrones, oh what were crowns, to such
a joy as this?

One little sight of Jesus was enough for many
years,
One look at Him their stay and staff in the dismal
'ale of tears:
Their people for that sight of Him they gallantly'
withstood,
They taii(rlit His faith, they preached His word, and
for Him shed their blood.

Xh me! what broad daylight of faltli our thankless
souls receive.
How much we know of Jesus, and how easy to
believe:
'Tis the noonday of His sunshine, of His sun that
setteth never:
Faith gives us crowns, and makes us kings, and our
kingdom is forever.

Oh glory be to God on high for these Arabian
kings,
These miracles of royal faith, with eastern offer-
ings:
For Gaspar and for Melchior and Balthazzar, who
from far
Found Mary out and Jesus by the siiining of a
Star!

Let us ask these martyrs, then, these monarchs of the
xLast,
Who are sitting now in heaven at their Saviour's
endless feast,
To get us faith from Jesus, and hereafter faith's
bright home,
And day and night to thank Him for the glorious
Faith of Rome I