CHRISTMAS. Guided by his gentle staff Must I not rejoice for this? He will bear me home to heaven; 149 LOUIS H. VON HAYM. CHRISTMAS. "TIS Christmas day! glad voices Why do we thus greet Christmas morn? With little gifts that tell our love, With thankful hearts and helpful hands, Why do we thus keep Christmas morn? Full eighteen hundred years ago He came, - he lived, he died for us: We thank God for his birth; And therefore we keep Christmas morn, And on this Christmas morning, Dear child! in your warm, pleasant home, So shall you well keep Christmas morn, Christ healed the sick, and helped the poor, When he was on the earth: Do what you can to be like him This morning of his birth; Help some one to keep Christmas morn, HYMNS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. JESUS AND THE DOVE. 151 JESUS AND THE DOVE. A CATHOLIC LEGEND. With patient hand Jesus in clay once wrought, MARY, the mother good and mild, To find the brightest, freshest flowers, Tired of play, they came at last And sat at Mary's feet, While Jesus asked his mother dear A story to repeat. "And we," said one, "from out this clay Will make some little birds, So shall we all sit quietly And heed the mother's words.” 152 JESUS AND THE DOVE. Then Mary, in her gentle voice, Told of a little child, Who lost her way one dark, dark night And how an angel came to her, And how he bore her in his arms The children sit at Mary's feet, But now the clay that Jesus held And slowly grew within his hands Whose eyes unclose, whose wings unfold, JESUS AND THE DOVE. The children drop their birds of clay, And when he bends and softly breathes, Slowly it rises in the air Before their eager eyes, And with a white and steady wing, The children all stretch forth their arms, As if to draw it down: "Dear Jesus made the little dove From out the clay so brown. "Canst thou not live with us below, And let us hold thee in our hands, "The little dove, it hears us not, 153 |