“…for
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the
city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to
you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:10-12
From
heaven high I wing my flight.
To
bring new tidings of glad delight ;
Or
tidings good so much I bring,
Thereof
I'll speak, and thereof I'll sing.
For
unto you a Child, this morn,
Is
of a chosen virgin born;
A
Child so blest, and fair to see,
He
shall your joy and your comfort be.
Salvation
'mong you will He share,
Which
God the Father did prepare,
That
in the heavenly kingdom ye
Might
dwell both now and eternally.
Then
mark ye well the sign He chose,
The
crib and lowly swaddling clothes;
There
shall ye find the Infant lain
That
earth and all things doth sustain.
Let
us rejoice, then, every one,
And
with the shepherds wander on,
To
see what gift the God of heaven
To
us, e'en His dear Son, hath given.
Awake
! my heart, and lift thine eyes!
Behold
what in yon manger lies!
What
is this beauteous Babe so mild?
It
is the lovely Jesus child.
O
Jesus, whom my heart holds dear,
Make
thee a warm soft cradle here;
Within
my breast a dweller be,
That
I may ever remember Thee.
Glory
to God on highest throne,
Who
sent to us His only Son ;
Therefore
rejoice, ye angel throng,
Of
this new year to sing the song.
MARTIN
LUTHER
Tr:
Henry William Dulcken
The sun sets on the
twenty-fourth of December on the low roofs of Bethlehem, and the gleams with
wan gold on the steep of its stony ridge. The stars come out one by
one. Time itself, as if sentient, seems to get eager, as though the hand
of its angel shook as it draws on towards midnight. Bethlehem is at that
moment the veritable centre of God's creation. How silently the stars
drift down the steep of the midnight sky! Yet a few moments, and the
Eternal Word will come.
F.W. FABER
He, that, as Job saith,
taketh the vast body of the sea, turns it to and fro as a little child, and
rolls it about with the swaddling-bands of darkness; He to lie there, the
Lord of glory, without all glory! Instead of a palace, a poor stable; of
a cradle of state, a beast's cratch; no pillow but a lock of hay; no hangings
but dust and cobweb! Christ, though as yet He cannot speak, yet out of
His crib, as a pulpit, this day preaches to us, and His theme is, "Learn
of Me, for I am humble." This is the praecepe of praesepe, as I may
call it, the lesson of Christ's manger.
BISHOP ANDREWS
When therefore the first
spark of a desire after God arises in thy soul, cherish it with all thy care,
give all thy heart into it; it is nothing less than a touch of the divine
loadstone, that is to draw thee out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.
Get up therefore, and follow it as gladly as the wise men of the east followed
the star from heaven that appeared to them. It will do for thee as the
star did for them, it will lead thee to the birth of Jesus, not in a stable at
Bethlehem in Judea, but to the birth of Jesus in the dark centre of thine own
soul.
WILLIAM
LAW
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