Christmas Eve

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19762, 18 December 1935, Page 15 (Supplement)

Christmas Eve

THE swinging bells have settled now to silence, And from the byre there comes the muffled sound Of restless beasts that, weary, shift their balance, Knee-deep in rustling straw on trodden ground. Riding above the hill’s dark height, the moon Touches the earth with her white wizardry, And all the Milky Way is tinselstrewn With stars like candles on a Christ-mas-tree. Surely on such a night, when skies were clear, The clarion trumpet called: Be not afraid! And shepherds, crouching to the ground in fear, Heard that their Lord was in a manger laid. And hurrying from the fields and down the street, A village street as rough and steep as this, Came, with a star to guide their stumbling feet, To where His Mother worshipped with a kiss. The village sleeps to-night; no angels sing, No wise men, bearing gifts, come from afar. But, bright upon our darkness heralding The Eternal Incarnation, burns a star. For not in time alone the mystery Of heavenly blossom on an earthly stem, But every cottage shall a manger be, and every English village Bethlehem.