Poem December 22, 1945 Issue

The Light Leads On

PEARL STRACHAN HURD

What is this Christmas? A long-ago
Birth of a child, when the north had snow
And in Judea a mother drew
Her little one close, and somehow knew
He was foreordained? Did the Wisemen see
What this would mean for you, for me?

Whatever they saw, whatever they felt,
As they spread their gifts out where they knelt,
They must have known that human birth
Could not alone bring peace on earth.
Yet they must have known that the holy Word
Had found a way, a way to be heard.

"What does this mean?" they might have said.
What has it meant? A woman read
The Scripture tale. A woman saw
The working of the heavenly law.
O little Bethlehem, your light
Leads on undimmed, through all the night.