| |
| LORD, when the wise men came from far, | |
| Led to Thy cradle by a star, | |
| Then did the shepherds too rejoice, | |
| Instructed by Thy Angel’s voice: | |
| Blest were the wise men in their skill | 5 |
| And shepherds in their harmless will. | |
| |
| Wise men in tracing Nature’s laws | |
| Ascend unto the highest Cause; | |
| Shepherds with humble fearfulness | |
| Walk safely, though their Light be Life: | 10 |
| Though wise men better know the way | |
| It seems no honest heart can stray. | |
| |
| There is no merit in the wise | |
| But Love, (the shepherds’ sacrifice) | |
| Wise men, all ways of knowledge past, | 15 |
| To the shepherds’ wonder come at last: | |
| To know can only wonder breed, | |
| And not to know is wonder’s seed. | |
| |
| A wise man at the altar bows | |
| And offers up his studied vows, | 20 |
| And is received,—may not the tears, | |
| Which springs too from a shepherd’s fears, | |
| And sighs upon his frailty spent, | |
| Though not distinct, be eloquent? | |
| |
| ’Tis true, the object, sanctifies | 25 |
| All passions which within us rise, | |
| But since no creature comprehends | |
| The Cause of causes, End of Ends, | |
| He who himself vouchsafes to know | |
| Best pleases his Creator so. | 30 |
| |
| When, then, our sorrows we apply, | |
| To our own wants and poverty, | |
| When we look up in all distress | |
| And our own misery confess, | |
| Sending both thanks and prayers above— | 35 |
| Then, though we do not know, we love. | |
| |
