ODE VIII.

θαύματος ὑπερφυοῦς ἡ δροσοβόλος.

The dewy freshness that the furnace flings Works out a wond'rous type of future things: Nor did the flame the Holy Three consume, Nor did the Godhead's fire thy frame entomb, Thou, on Whose bosom hung the WORD: Wherefore we cry with heart's endeavour, "Let all Creation bless the LORD,

And magnify His Name for ever!"

Babel's proud daughter once led David's

race

From Sion, to their exile's woeful place :
Babel now bids her wise men, gifts in hand,
Before King David's Royal Daughter stand,
The Mother of the Incarnate Word:
Wherefore we cry with heart's endeavour,
"Let all Creation bless the LORD,
And magnify His Name for ever!"

From music grief held back the exile's hand: "How sing the LORD's song in an alien land?"

But Babel's exile here is done away,
And Bethlehem's harmony this glorious day
By Thee, Incarnate GOD, restored:
Wherefore we cry with heart's endeavour,
"Let all Creation bless the LORD,
And magnify His Name for ever!"

Of old victorious Babel bore away
The spoils of Royal Sion and her prey:
But Babel's treasure now, and Babel's kings,
CHRIST, by the guiding star, to Sion brings.
There have they knelt, and there ador'd:
Wherefore we cry with heart's endeavour,
"Let all Creation bless the LORD,

And magnify His Name for ever!"

ODE IX.

μυστήριον ξένον.

O wond'rous mystery, full of passing grace! The grot becometh Heav'n: the Virgin's

breast

The bright Cherubic Throne: the stall that place,

Where He, Who fills all space, vouchsafes

to rest:

CHRIST Our GOD, to Whom we raise
Hymns of thankfulness and praise !

The course propitious of the unknown Star
The Magi follow'd on its heav'nly way,—
Until it led them, beckoning from afar,
To where the CHRIST, the King of all
things, lay:

Him in Bethlehem they find,

Born the SAVIOUR of mankind.

"Where is the Child," they ask, "the new

born King,

Whose herald-light is glittering in the sky,

To Whom our offerings and our praise we

bring?"

And Herod's heart is troubled utterly.

Armed for war with GOD, in vain

Would he see that Infant slain.

TRANSFIGURATION.

I shall, perhaps, render the following Canon more acceptable to most readers. if, instead of translating the Odes in detail, I make a cento from the more remarkable Troparia.

They are principally from the first four Odes.

χορὸς Ισραήλ.

The choirs of ransomed Israel,
The Red Sea's passage o'er,
Uprais'd the hymn of triumph
Upon the further shore :
And shouted, as the foeman
Was whelm'd beneath the sea,—
' Sing we to Judah's Saviour,

For glorified is He!'

Amongst His Twelve Apostles

CHRIST spake the Words of Life,

And shew'd a realm of beauty

Beyond a world of strife: