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, make 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:

'When all My FATHER'S glory Shall shine express'd in Me, Then praise Him, then exalt Him, For magnified is He!'

Upon the Mount of Tabor

The promise was made good;
When, baring all the Godhead,
In light itself He stood:
And they, in awe beholding,
The Apostolic Three,

Sang out to GOD their Saviour,

For magnified was He!

In days of old, on Sinai,

The LORD Jehovah came,

In majesty of terror,

In thunder-cloud and flame:

On Tabor, with the glory

Of sunniest light for vest,

The excellence of beauty
In JESUS was express'd.

All hours and days inclin'd there,
And did Thee worship meet;
The sun himself adored Thee,

And bow'd him at Thy feet:

While Moses and Elias

Upon the Holy Mount, The co-eternal glory

Of CHRIST our GOD recount.

O holy, wond'rous Vision!

But what, when this life past, The beauty of Mount Tabor

Shall end in Heav'n at last? But what, when all the glory Of uncreated light

Shall be the promis'd guerdon Of them that win the fight?