Star of the east, how sweet art Thou,
Seen in life’s ear­ly morn­ing sky,
Ere yet a cloud has dimmed the brow,
While yet we gaze with child­ish eye;
When fa­ther, mo­ther, nurs­ing friend,
Most dear­ly loved, and lov­ing best,
First bid us from their arms as­cend,
Pointing to Thee, in Thy sure rest.

Too soon the glare of earth­ly day
Buries, to us, Thy bright­ness keen,
And we are left to find our way
By faith and hope in Thee un­seen.
What mat­ter? if the way­marks sure
On ev­ery side are round us set,
Soon ov­er­leaped, but not obs­cure?
’Tis ours to mark them or for­get.

What mat­ter? if in calm old age
Our child­hood’s star again arise,
Crowning our lone­ly pil­grim­age
With all that cheers a wan­der­er’s eyes?
Ne’er may we lose it from our sight,
Till all our hopes and thoughts are led
To where it stays its lu­cid flight
Over our Sav­ior’s low­ly bed.

There, swathed in hum­blest po­ver­ty,
On chas­ti­ty’s meek lap en­shrined,
With breath­less re­ver­ence wait­ing by,
When we our so­ver­eign mas­ter find,
Will not the long-for­got­ten glow
Of min­gled joy and awe re­turn,
When stars above or flow­ers below
First made our in­fant spir­its burn?

Look on us, Lord, and take our parts
E’en on Thy throne of pur­ity!
From these our proud yet gro­vel­ing hearts
Hide not Thy mild for­giv­ing eye.
Did not the Gen­tile Church find grace,
Our mo­ther dear, this fa­vored day?
With gold and myrrh she sought Thy face;
Nor didst Thou turn Thy face away.

She too, in ear­li­er, pur­er days,
Had watched Thee gleam­ing faint and far
But wan­der­ing in self chos­en ways
She lost Thee quite, Thou love­ly star.
Yet had her Fa­ther’s fin­ger turned
To Thee her first in­quir­ing glance:
The deep­er shame with­in her burned,
When wak­ened from her will­ful trance.

Behold, her wis­est throng Thy gate,
Their rich­est, sweet­est, pur­est store,
(Yet owned too worth­less and too late)
They lav­ish on Thy cot­tage floor.
They give their best—O ten­fold shame
On us their fall­en pro­ge­ny,
Who sac­ri­fice the blind and lame—
Who will not wake or fast with Thee!