Then sudden before your eyes the walls material fade And melt away in the light, While, full in that ray, as on stairway of stars, descend, In robes of splendor bedight, Three kingships on pilgrimage questing, with Heaven their aid, And God within them their friend. They move all majestical onward, as eager to greet The slumbering Infant who draws them to kneel at His feet. III. The first is the kingship of Love, that walks in the van-- Of Love that kneels only to Love, And vows unto Love a devotion Love only may pay. Since Love is endowed from above. How else could mortality offer such worship to man, Or clay so reverence clay, Did Love not know Love as predestined from death to win free, Though lying all feeble and helpless asleep on your knee? IV. The second is kingship of Service, carrying high Its casket of frankincense rare, As ready in glad self-oblation to cast at Love's feet The vessel fashioned so fair; In gladness releasing, as incense that floats to the sky, The odors of sacrifice sweet; Lest self claim the fragrance that clings to one drop of the nard, To shatter the vessel so fine to the uttermost shard. V. The third is the kingship of Wisdom, lingering still, With hands that grope as they bear No visible gift, and with footsteps that feel for the light, And with eyes turned inward, from fear Lest soon all their questing be ended, lest soon they shall fill Their seeing with fullness of sight; Still wise in their seeking for wisdom, yet wiser to be In serving the Christ of their seeking on worshipping knee. VI. Is all but a dream, O my mother, as, plain in your sight, These march on their star-lit way? Or see you, through casements celestial, on Heaven's bright floor, Some earnest of Heaven's new day, When all things on earth, or in heaven, or in hell's blackest night, Bow down to give praise evermore-- When they sing the new song of release from earth's sorrow and thrall To Him who, though born in a manger, is King over all? VII. Still dream, and with life as it passes still mingle your dream, Nor fear for the ages unknown! All fear shall your Babe laugh to scorn, however heavy its weight, Since man is not faring alone! 'Emmanuel'--'God with us all'--this is solace, we deem, Sufficient to front any fate; Though sharp be the Cross He must bear, when the conflict is o'er, The kingship of earth and of heaven is His evermore. XII. A Prayer for the New Year A Prayer for the New Year