In Bethlehem the Lord was born Whose birth has brought us life and light, On Calvary that death of scorn He died, that broke Death's cruel might: I wandered from a western strand And sought through many an eastern land, Yet found I greater nought than ye, O Bethlehem and Calvary! | Ye wonders of the ancient world, How hath your pomp been swept away, And earthly strength to ruin hurled By power that knows not of decay! I saw them scattered far and wide, The ruined heaps on every side; But lowly glory still I see Round Bethlehem and Calvary. | Ye Pyramids are but a tomb Wherein did toiling mortals build Death's utter darkness; 'tis his gloom, Not peace, wherewith your depths are filled. Ye Sphinxes, to the world of old Could Life's enigma ne'er unfold; 'Tis solved for ages yet to be In Bethlehem and Calvary! | 339 O Syria's earthly Paradise, Fair Schiraz' gardens of the rose, Ye palmy plains 'neath Indian skies, Ye shores where soft the spice-wind blows, Death stalks through all that looks so fair, I trace his shadow everywhere; Look up, and Life's true Fountain see In Bethlehem and Calvary! | Thou Kaaba, black desert-stone, Against which half the world to-day Still stumbles, strive to keep thy throne Lit by Thy Crescent's pallid ray; The moon before the sun must pale, That brighter Sign shall yet prevail, Of Him whose cry of victory Is Bethlehem and Calvary! | O Thou, who didst not once disdain The childish form, the Manger poor; Who once to take from us our pain All pain didst on the Cross endure; Pride to Thy Manger cannot bend, Thy Cross doth haughty minds offend, But lowly hearts draw close to Thee In Bethlehem and Calvary! | The Kings approach, to worship there The Paschal Lamb, the Shepherd race; And thitherwards the nations fare As pilgrims to the Holy Place; The storm of warfare on them breaks, The World but not the Cross it shakes, When East and West in strife ye see For Bethlehem and Calvary. | 340 O not like those, with weaponed hand, But with the Spirit let us go To conquer back the Holy Land, As Christ is conquering still below; Let beams of light on ev'ry side Speed as Apostles far and wide, Till all the Earth draws light from thee, O Bethlehem, O Calvary! | With pilgrim hat and staff I went Afar through Orient lands to roam, My years of pilgrimage are spent, And this the word I bring you home; The pilgrim's staff ye need not crave To seek God's Cradle or His Grave, But seek within you, there shall be His Bethlehem and Calvary! | O Heart, what helps it to adore His Cradle where the sunrise glows? Or what avail to kneel before The Grave whence long ago He rose? That He should find in thee a birth, That thou shouldst seek to die to earth And live to Him;--this, this must be Thy Bethlehem and Calvary! | |