GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 32, 17 December 1897, Page 31

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO.

(Written on Christmas Morning.) (By P. E. Nolan, in " The Last of the Glengarry's and Other Poems.") Abroad on the mountains the dawn is revealing That virginal morning uncurtains her eyes ; And down through the azure a splendour is stealing And spreading its lustrous wings thro' the skies ; And sunward the songters their matins are telling And Nature herself is unusually gay, And robed in rich raiment, in beauty excelling, She's waiting to welcome the Master to-day. He cometh ; the tearful no longer are weeping, Their woes at his coming are fading apace ;—; — He cometh who lovingly holds in his keeping The thread of our lives and the doom of our race ;—; — From on high where all beauty eternal is blooming, Alluring to stray where our fathers have trod, Our hearts and our homes with His presence illuming, He cometh — our Father, our Friend, and our God. O infinite Power, 'neath Thy vigil eternal What worlds have nourished and faded, and now Serene as at first with a beauty supernal Thou smilest. Time dims not Thy luminous brow. Ay, longer than Fancy can soar on her pinion, Long, long, ere Creation first smiled on Thy face Thy wisdom ordained, and Thou, too, hatlst dominion O'er all the vast regions of limitless space. Here need I to love Thee no mellifluous plunges, No grand exhortation : the beauties I see In Nature around me aie rite with Thy prunes And speak to my wondering j-plrit of ihco. Away where the stars are in solitude dreaming. On earth here below a.s in heaven above, The light of Thy presence i'or ever is beaming, All speak Thee a God of pertcction and love. O merciful Father, all powerful and tender, What ecstasy gladdens, what pl» azures requite Their labours who all ior Thy friendship surrender, Who live in Thy love and who walk m Thy li^ht. Ay lowly and meekly from Heaven descending, .Revealing to all the glad future in store, Thy nature divine with our frail nature blending. Thy children among them beheld Thee of yore. And now to confirm their wondrous story Thou comest — Thy presence, ineffably grand, Illuming the hea\ ens with lustrous glory, • And blushing in beauty all over the land. All merciful Father. Creator. All-Giver, How tempered with love Thine immaculate sway. Then glory to Thee be for ever and ever. O God of the universe welcome to-day.