World's Wealth, Heart's Worship, and Life's Suffering

The Epiphany
by Samuel John Stone

Lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them.
... They presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
St. Mart. ii. 9, 11.

O tongue* of heaven, whose silence eloquent,
What time that night's evangel nearer fell,
Foretold the mystery of Emmanuel
To those far off, whose alien eyes intent
Kept faithful vigil toward the Orient:
Star-Pilot of the watchful and the wise,
Thus, speaking through my eastward-gazing eyes,
Win my soul on to the Divine Event.
That so, soon kneeling at the Sacred Feet
There only losing thee, my harbinger
With gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh,
I, too, may make my offering complete:
World's wealth, heart's worship, and life's suffering,
Meet for my Fellow-Man, my God, my King.

* Lingua cæli is the expression of St. Augustine, referring to the star.