( A LITTLE BOY'S CHRISTMAS LESSON )

Why were the Wise Men three,

Instead of five or seven?”

They had to match, you see,

The archangels in Heaven.

God sent them, sure and swift,

By his mysterious presage,

To bear the threefold gift

And take the threefold message.

Thus in their hands were seen

The gold of purest Beauty,

The myrrh of Truth all-clean,

The frankincense of Duty.

And thus they bore away

The loving heart's great treasure,

And knowledge clear as day,

To be our life's new measure.

They went back to the East

To spread the news of gladness.

There one became a priest

To the new word of sadness;

And one a workman, skilled

Beyond the old earth's fashion;

And one a scholar, filled

With learning's endless passion.

God sent them for a sign

He would not change nor alter

His good and fair design,

However man may falter.

He meant that, as He chose

His perfect plan and willed it,

They stood in place of those

Who elsewhere had fulfilled it;

Whoso would mark and reach

The height of man's election,

Must still achieve and teach

The triplicate perfection.

For since the world was made,

One thing was needed ever,

To keep man undismayed

Through failure and endeavor —

A faultless trinity

Of body, mind, and spirit,

And each with its own three

Strong angels to be near it;

Strength to arise and go

Wherever dawn is breaking,

Poise like the tides that flow,

Instinct for beauty-making;

Imagination bold

To cross the mystic border,

Reason to seek and hold,

Judgment for law and order;

Joy that makes all things well,

Faith that is all-availing

Each terror to dispel,

And Love, ah, Love unfailing.

These are the flaming Nine

Who walk the world unsleeping,

Sent forth by the Divine

With manhood in their keeping.

These are the seraphs strong

His mighty soul had need of,

When He would right the wrong

And sorrow He took heed of.

And that, I think, is why

The Wise Men knelt before Him,

And put their kingdoms by

To serve Him and adore Him;

So that our Lord, unknown,

Should not be unattended,

When He was here alone

And poor and unbefriended;

That still He might have three

( Rather than five or seven )

To stand in their degree,

Like archangels in Heaven.