Wherefore in the lowly stall, O Thou great Creator, Dost Thou raise Thine infant call, Glorious Renovator? Where Thy purple if a King? Where the shouts Thy subjects bring? Where Thy royal castle? Here is want with all her train, Poverty proclaims her reign— These Thy court and vassal. II (_Jesus respondit_) Hither, by My love impelled, Have I come to save thee; Sin has long thy nature held, Powerful to enslave thee. By My emptiness and woe, By the grace that I bestow, Do I seek to fill thee. By My humble, lowly birth, By this sacrifice on earth, Blessing great I will thee. III (_Laudant fideles_) Songs of praise, ten thousand songs, Sing I will and laud Thee; For such grace my spirit longs, Ever to applaud Thee. Glory, glory let there be, Lover of mankind to Thee, In the heaven supernal. Let this testimony fly Over earth, and sea, and sky, Borne by songs eternal. QUICUMQUE CHRISTUM QUÆRITIS This hymn for the Epiphany forms part of a larger one of very complex authorship, known as _A solis ortûs cardine, Et usque terræ limitem_. This portion of that Christmas hymn has by some been assigned to St. Ambrose, but by a majority of judges to Prudentius, “the Horace and Virgil of the Christians,” in the estimate of the scholarly Bentley. Aurelius Prudentius, Clemens, or the Merciful, was born in 348, somewhere in the north of Spain. After filling various secular offices he retired, in his fifty-seventh year, into private life, and devoted himself to the composition of sacred verse. He died circa 413, but where we are not told. I O ye who seek the Lord, come nigh, To heaven uplift your reverent eyes, The Royal Banner of our God Is blazoned on the midnight skies. II Brighter than when the sun at noon Pours forth its radiance on the earth, See yonder star its glory sheds, And tells to man the Saviour’s birth. III O wisdom seeks the lowly stall, And takes the guidance of the star, To worship where the Incarnate lies, And offer gifts from lands afar: IV With incense, worships the Divine, With gold, a kingly tribute pays, And at the feet of God made Man, The myrrh in sweet profusion lays. V O Bethlehem, city ever blest! What honour more could come to thee? The cradle of the Incarnate God, Who came to set His Israel free! VI O Jesus, to the world revealed! To Thee let glory ever be, To Father and to Holy Ghost, From age to age eternally. _Epiphany_ JESU, NOSTRA REDEMPTIO