The Epiphany

How calm, how blest this tranquil hour
Of household evening joy!
The world shut out, with all its power
To trouble or annoy.

The world shut out, and love shut in,
With youth and gentle mirth,
Which ever make their pleasant din,
Best by the household hearth.

The duties of the day are done,
Its toil and burden o'er;
To claim, until the rising sun,
Our anxious hearts no more.

Then let us rest amid the gifts
God's tenderness hath given,
And bless each blessing as it lifts
Our grateful hearts to Heaven.

Whence have we this secure repose,
This light in evening's gloom,
This warm and cheerful gleam that glows
Round all the pleasant room?

These songs of joy, these smiles of love,
These voices soft and low,
That talk with us of home above,
And brighten home below!

Long time ago, a wondrous star
Led o'er a trackless way
Three Gentile sages from afar,
To where an Infant lay —

In swaddling clothes, — all helpless bound,
In poor and mean abode,
And there in Him all Gentiles found
Their Saviour and their God.

Thence come all joy, all love, all light,
That gladden Christian homes,
Our very safety day and night
From that one Dwelling comes:

The Sun that morning star foretold
High in meridian stands,
And scatters gifts an hundredfold
O'er all the Gentile lands.

Cold then and heartless they must be
Who all these blessings share,
Yet grudge, on Christ's Epiphany,
Their meed of praise and prayer.

The Gifts of God so large and free
They proudly deem their own,
Which, but for Christ's Epiphany,
They never could have known.

Lord keep us from such sinfulness,
And give us grace to prove,
How they, who daily debts confess,
Should render love for love.