Christmas in Heaven

HOW hushed they were in Heaven that night,

How lightly all the angels went,

How dumb the singing spheres beneath

Their many-candled tent!

How silent all the drifting throng

Of earth-freed spirits, strangely torn

By dim and half-remembered pain

And joy but newly born!

The Glory in the Highest flamed

With awful, unremembered ray —

But quiet as the falling dew

Was He who went away.

So swift He went, His passing left

A low, bright door in Heaven ajar —

With God it was a covenant,

To man it seemed a star.