Christmas Sunshine

A free download from www.dertz.in

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Christmas Sunshine, by Various
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Christmas Sunshine
Author: Various
Release Date: January 15, 2007 [EBook #20378]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS
SUNSHINE ***
Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy, Juliet Sutherland and the
Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration]
CHRISTMAS
SUNSHINE
BUFFALO NEW YORK
THE HAYES LITHOGRAPHING CO.
Do the angels know the blessed day,
And strike their harps anew?

Then may the echo of their lay
Float sweetly down to you,
And fill
your soul with Christmas song
That your heart shall echo your whole
life long.
_Havergal._

[Illustration]
A bright and happy Christmas to you! Lift up yourselves to the great
meaning of the day, and dare to think of your humanity as something so
sublimely precious that it is worthy of being made an offering to God,
and then go out to the pleasures and duties of your life, having been
truly born anew into His Divinity, as He was born into our humanity on
Christmas Day.
_Phillips Brooks._
Most tangible of all the gods that be,
O Santa Claus--our own since
infancy!--
As first we scampered to thee--now, as then,
Take us as
children to thy heart again.
_Riley._
[Illustration]
Then welcome snow of Christmas,
We read thy prophecy,
We
know what wish lies hidden,
What germs of life may be
Concealed
beneath thy mantle,
All folded close away,
Awaiting their fruition,

In heaven's eternal day.
_M. C. O._
One wish ere yet the long year ends;
Let's close it with a parting
rhyme,
A pledge, a hand, to all our friends
As fits the merry
Christmas time:
On life's wide scene you, too, have parts,
That Fate
ere long shall bid you play;
Good-night: with honest, gentle hearts,

A kindly greeting go alway.
_Thackeray._
It was the winter wild,
While the heaven-born child
All meanly
wrapt in the rude manger lies:
Nature, in awe to him
Had doff'd her
gaudy trim,
With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no

season then for her
To wanton with the sun, her lusty paramour.
Only with speeches fair
She wooes the gentle air
To hide her guilty
front with innocent snow:
And on her naked shame,
Pollute with
sinful blame,
The saintly veil of maiden white to throw;

Confounded, that her Maker's eyes
Should look so near upon her foul
deformities.
But he, her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace;
She,
crowned with olives green, came softly sliding
Down through the
turning sphere
His ready harbinger,
With turtle wing the amorous
clouds dividing;
And, waving wide her myrtle wand,
She strikes a
universal peace through sea and land.
No war or battle's sound,
Was heard the world around;
The idle
spear and shield were high up hung,
The hooked chariot stood,

Unstained with hostile blood;
The trumpet spake not to the armed
throng;
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew
their sovran Lord was by.
But peaceful was the night,
Wherein the Prince of light
His reign of
Peace upon the earth began:
The winds with wonder whist

Smoothly the waters kist,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding
on the charmed wave.
_Milton._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's
birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And
then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome,
then no planets strike,
No fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

_Shakespeare._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
O HOLY Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our
sin, and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas
angels
The great glad tidings tell;
Oh come to us, abide with us,

Our Lord Emmanuel!
_Phillips Brooks._
Swell the notes of the Christmas Song!
Sound it forth through the
earth abroad!
Blessing and honor, thanks and laud!
Take the joy of
the Christmas Song!
Are not the tidings good and true?
Peace to
you,
And God's good will that is ever new.
_Havergal._
You little children, in whose eyes
Undimmed the light of heaven
glows,
Whose dreams are bright with paradise,
Whose souls are
whiter than the snows,
From holy lips and undefiled,
Breathe your
soft prayer to Christ, the Child!
And you whose thinning locks are sprent
With unreturning autumn's
rime,
Whose heads, like wind-worn trees, are bent
Beneath the
savage storms of time--
Pray Christ, the Child, to be your guide

Past the dim shoal, where shadows bide.
O saving hands! O Christ, that hears
A mortal mother's lullabies;

That feels our agony and tears,
Whose bosom trembles with our sighs,

Give us pure hearts and undefiled,
Make us like thee, O Christ, the
Child!
_Unknown._

[Illustration]
Hark! how all the welkin rings,
Glory to the King of kings!
Peace
on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinner reconciled!
Joyful, all ye
nations, rise,
Join the triumph