Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/130

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Agnes Maule Machar

DE PROFUNDIS: A CHRISTMAS CAROL

DARKLY the days drop towards the reddening West,

Before the night beset with dreams of harm;

The Dove of Peace can find no place of rest,

'Mid surging seas of sorrow and alarm;

The pall of anguish spreads from West to East,

Scarce can we trace the Christmas Star on high,

'Mid bitter stress and strain for man and beast

That racks a mourning world while millions die.

In vain we seek a power that may withstand

The stream of strife and slaughter spreading wide;

Nor prince nor prophet ventures to command

The force resistless of that fearful tide.

Still, Lord, to Thee we turn—our hope alone—

Thy power, set high, all others far above;

We come for refuge to Thy Cross and Throne:

Our trust, Thy strength, Thy wisdom and Thy love.

What though, amid the trouble and the fear,

The war-worn peoples ask if Christ is dead;

Though Faith grow faint because she will not hear

The voice of Him who is 'the Living Bread?'

Still stands He with us, as He stood of old

Before the men who made their market-place

Within the Temple courts, where lust of gold

Obscured the glory of His Father's face.

And lo! the Christmas Star, whose beacon high

Led Eastern sages all their desert way,

Shines forth once more to bless the Christmas sky

With hope and promise of the coming day.

O stricken nations, that in darkness pine

Amid the deepening shades of Death and Night,

Awake to kneel before the Babe Divine

And hail the spreading of His 'Glorious Light!'

What though all earthly lights may fail and wane,

Though War his deadly harvest garner in;

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