280 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

A restless shadow through the chamber waving;
Upon its boughs a bird sings in the sun;
But Thou, with that close slumber on thy mouth,
Doth seem of wind and sun already weary;

Art come for saving?

O my Weary One!

“We sate among the stalls at Bethlehem

The dumb kine from their fodder turning them
Softened their horned faces,
To almost human gazes,
Towards the newly born!

The simple shepherds from the star-lit brooks
Brought visionary looks

As yet in their astonished hearing rung
The strange sweet angel-tongue.

The Magi of the East in sandals worn
Knelt reverent, sweeping round,

With long pale beards, their gifts upon the ground,
The incense, myrrh and gold,

These baby hands were impotent to hold,

So let all earthlies and celestials wait
Upon Thy royal state!
Sleep, sleep, my Kingly One!

As yet, while mystery upon mystery crowded upon the
heart and mind of Mary, we well may hope the shadow of
the cross. had not fallen upon the home of Nazareth. A
blessed, happy, holy time that must have been, as Jesus grew
from infancy to childhood and from childhood to his bright
boyhood. We see the child playing about the house by the
open door, charmed with every bird that sings and every flower
that blooms. We see him on his mother’s knee learning
his letters, or listening to her simple stories, or bending at
her knee to repeat his morning and evening prayer.

Desiring to cherish the deepest reverence of spirit, we
cannot help thinking of the boy Jesus as a real human boy,
The learned men who make the creeds, speak of Jesus as
“Very God of very God,” and we know that he was “very

man of very man.” May we not with reverence think of

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