Advent #6

(Good friend, Bob Witmer, shared this with us.  Very poignant obviously.  Now to find the music.)

Bells Across The Snow
O Christmas, merry Christmas!
Is it really come again,
With its memories and greetings,
With its joy and with its pain?
There's a minor in the carol,
And a shadow in the light,
And a spray of cypress twining
With the holly wreath to-night.
And the hush is never broken.

By laughter light and low,
As we listen in the starlight
To the "bells across the snow."
O Christmas, merry Christmas!
'Tis not so very long
Since other voices blended
With the carol and the song!
If we could but hear them singing
As they are singing now,
If we could but see the radiance
Of the crown on each dear brow;
There would be no sigh to smother,
No hidden tear to flow,

As we listen in the starlight To the "bells across the snow."
O Christmas, merry Christmas! This never more can be;
We cannot bring again the days Of our unshadowed glee.
But Christmas, happy Christmas,
Sweet herald of good-will, With holy songs of glory
Brings holy gladness still.
For peace and hope may brighten,
And patient love may glow,
As we listen in the starlight
To the "bells across the snow."

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879)
Published 1883