Monday, December 25, 2000
CHRISTMAS DAY

This is the month, and this the happy morn,

Wherein the Son of Heaven’s Eternal King,

Of wedded maid and virgin mother born,

Our great redemption from above did bring;

For so the holy sages once did sing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release,

And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

 

That glorious form, that Light insufferable,

And that far-beaming blaze majesty,

Wherewith he wont at Heaven’s high council-table

To sit the midst of Trinal Unity

He laid aside, and, here with us to be.

Forsook the courts of everlasting day,

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.

 

Say, Heavenly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein

Afford a present to the Infant God?

Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,

To welcome him to this his new abode,

Now while the heaven, by the Sun’s team untrod,

Hath took no print of the approaching light,

And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright?

 

See how from far upon the eastern road

The star-led wizards haste with odours sweet!

Oh! run; present them with thy humble ode,

And lay it lowly at his blessed feet;

Have thou the honour first thy Lord to greet,

And join thy voice unto the Angel Quire,

From out his secret altar touched with hallowed fire.

... John Milton (1608-1674), [1629] from On the morning of Chist’s Nativity, The Complete Poems of John Milton, New York: P. F. Collier, 1909, p. 7 (see the book; see also Matt. 2:9-11; Isa. 9:6; Matt. 1:20-23; Luke 2:13-14; more at Angel, Christmas, Consecration, Gladness, Humility, King, Peace, Redemption)

 
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2024, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
Send comments to curator@cqod.com.

Last updated: 12/22/17

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