Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CHRISTMAS THOUGHT, by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CHRISTMAS THOUGHT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The sweetest gift the father's love
Last Line: That thrilled the bethlehem way.
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Christmas; Gifts & Giving; Jesus Christ - Childhood & Youth; Mary. Mother Of Jesus; Women - Bible; Nativity, The; Virgin Mary


THE sweetest gift the Father's love
Sent ever down to men
Came in the stillness and the dark
That thrilled to music when
All suddenly the hills grew bright
And flamed athwart the sky
(A rift of heaven across the night)
The glory from on high.

Strong angels swept their hearts of fire
And sang of peace to men;
The wondering shepherds heard in awe
And took their pathway then
Along the hills by crag and steep
To find the mother-maid,
In whose glad arms that wintry night
God's gift of gifts was laid.

All heaven was in sweet Mary's heart,
The Babe had brought it her.
She did not think it strange to see
The frankincense and myrrh,
The shining gold, the sages gave,
As poured beneath a throne,
In honor of the kingly one,
That hour her very own.

So helpless, yet so beautiful,
Heaven's gift, the undefiled,
Earth's proudest and earth's lowliest
Bowed down before the Child.
And back to heaven the angels went
Whose songs had cleft the night,
And Bethlehem's star was lost amid
The morning's rapturous light.

Heaven's royal gift to earth that day,
Heaven's gift of life and love,
Was just a helpless little child
A mother bent above.
Worth more than ransom ever paid,
In weight of gold or gem,
The child who came to ransom us—
The Babe of Bethlehem.

And, aye, in many an earthly home
God's sweetest gift and best
Is still a little child who sleeps
Upon a mother's breast.
And over every cradled head
The angels sing to-day,
With something of the sweetness once
That thrilled the Bethlehem way.





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