“‘Glory to God in the highest!’

“When he had uttered that, he paused a moment, and the echoes, one after another, from hills that were near and hills that were far away, came flying home to us; so that I knew for once what the prophet meant when he said that all the mountains and the hills should break forth into singing.  But before the echoes had all faded we began to hear other voices above our heads, a great chorus, taking up the strain that the angel first had sung.  At first it seemed dim and far away; but gradually it came nearer, and filled all the air, filled all the earth, filled all our souls with a most entrancing sweetness.  Glory to God in the highest!—­that was the grandest part.  It seemed as though there could be no place so high that that strain would not mount up to it, and no place so happy that that voice would not make it thrill with new gladness.  But then came the softer tones, less grand, but even sweeter:  ‘Peace on earth; good will to men.’

“Oh! my boy, if you had heard that music as I did, you would not wonder when I tell you that it has been hard for me to wait here, in the midst of the dreary noises of earth, for fifty years before hearing it again.  But earth that night was musical as heaven.  You should have heard the echoes that came back, when the angels’ chorus ceased, from all these mountains and all these little hills on every side.  There is music enough even in this world, if one can only call it forth; chords divine that will vibrate with wonderful harmony.  It only needs an angel’s hand to touch the trembling strings.”

“Did you see the choir of angels overhead, grandfather?”

“Nay, I saw nothing.  The brightness was too dazzling for mortal eyes.  We all stood there, with downcast eyes, listening spell-bound to the wonderful melody, until the chorus ceased, and the echoes, one after another, died away, and the glory faded out of the sky and the stars came back again, and no sound was heard but the faint voice of a young lamb, calling for its mother.

“The first to break the silence was my father.  ‘Come,’ he said, in a solemn voice.  ’Let us go at once to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.’

“So the sheep were quietly gathered into the fold at the tower, and we hastened to Bethlehem.  Never shall I forget that journey by night.  We spake not many words, as we traveled swiftly the twenty furlongs; talk seemed altogether tame; but now and then my father broke forth in a song, and the others joined in the chorus.  We were not so spent with running but that we could find voice for singing; and such words as these of the prophet were the only ones that could give voice to our swelling hearts: 

    “’Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth;
      And break forth into singing, O mountains;
      For the Lord hath comforted His people,
      And will have mercy on His afflicted.