THE JOYOUS MESSAGE.

July 15.

And the angel said: Thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at His
birth.—Luke 1:14.

UNTO those who had eyes to see and a soul to understand,
the Nativity was attended by favorable omens in heaven
above and on the earth beneath. The story is told in St. Luke's
Gospel with a very delicate and lovely touch, and the atmosphere
is one of great joy and spiritual expectation. The coming of
Jesus was heralded and celebrated by songs which have passed
into the praise of the Christian Church. They all sang who had
to do with the Holy Child— the angels who escorted Him from
the heavenly places and bore the message of the Divine good
will ; Elizabeth, Zacharias, Simeon, and chiefly the Blessed
Virgin, on whom the very crown of motherhood rested.
                                              —Rev. John Watson. D. D.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
'er all the weary world ;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing;
And ever o'er its Babel sounds,
The blessed angels sing.
And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low;
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,—
Look now ! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
Oh, rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.
—Edmund Hamilton Sears.