WINGS AND SKY by Martha Snell Nicholson

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“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Corinthians 15:19).

CHRISTMAS MEDITATION

Suppose that Christ had not been born
That far away Judean morn.

Suppose that God, Whose mighty hand
Created worlds, had never planned

A way for man to be redeemed.
Suppose the wise men only dreamed

That guiding star whose light still glows
Down through the centuries. Suppose

Christ never walked here in men's sight,
Our blessed Way, and Truth, and Light.

Suppose He counted all the cost,
And never cared that we were lost,

And never died for you and me,
Nor shed His blood on Calvary

Upon a shameful cross. Suppose
That having died, He never rose,

And there was none with power to save
Our souls from death beyond the grave!

O far away Judean morn,
Suppose that Christ had not been born!

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“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:38).

MARY

A little maid in years,
Shaken by vague dim fears,
Half hoping in her heart
This strangeness would depart.
Bewildered by the light
She'd glimpsed that wondrous night;
Her own familiar world
Through star-lit spaces hurled:
Praying, soul hushed and awed,
At the very knees of God.

The Babe in her arms at last,
The valley of shadow past,
And deep in her woman's eyes
An infinite knowledge lies —
The secret of pain and loss,
The crown of thorns, and the cross,
(And her soft arms tighten their hold
Round the baby form they enfold.)
The vision that God had dreamed
Of a sinful world redeemed,
And afar on the shores of time
The light of a love sublime.

She holds to a waiting earth
The Son she has brought to birth!

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“We love him, because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).

MY LORD

My Lord, I cannot see
Why men should turn from Thee.

If they could only guess
Thy matchless loveliness,
The beauty of Thy face,
The richness of Thy grace,
My Lord, my Lord!

If they could only see
Thee on the cruel tree!
Nor pain nor death was stayed
Till all our debt was paid,
My Lord, my Lord.

If they could only know
That heart which loves them so,

Their only thought would be
How they might come to Thee,
My Lord, my Lord!

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“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:3-4)

THE OBLIVIOUS

How can it be from Thee they turn,
And all Thy loving sweetness spurn?
Do they deliberately choose,
And in their heart of hearts refuse
Thee, tender Christ?

Or are they deafened by the din
Of earth, and blinded so by sin
That Thy dear face they do not see,
Nor heed the pleading voice of Thee,
O gracious Christ?

I am so faulty and so weak,
In my own strength I dare not speak,
But may my every deed and word
Show forth the beauty of the Lord,
Until they long Thy face to see,
And turn, and follow after
Thee, Forgiving Christ!