Christmas Stories Day 1

The Guest

Author Unknown

Yet if his majesty, our sovereign lord,

Should of his own accord
Friendly himself invite,
And say, “I’ll be your guest to-marrow night,”
How should we stir ourselves, call and command
All hands to work! “Let no man idle stand.”

“Set my fine Spanish tables in the hall,

See they be fitted all;
Let there be room to eat,
And order taken that there want no meat.
See every scone and candlestick made bright,
That without tapers they any give light.”

Look to the presence: are the carpets spread,

The dazie o’er the head,
The cushions in the chairs,
And all the candles lighted on the stairs?
Perfume the chambers, and in any case
Let each man give attendance in his place.”

Thus is the King were coming would we do,
And ‘twere good reasons too;
For ‘tis a duteous thing
To show all honour to an earthly king.
And after all our travail and our cost,
So he be pleased, to think no labour lost.
 

But at the coming of the King in Heaven

All’s set at six and seven:
We wallow in our sin,
Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
We entertain Him always like a stranger,
And as at first, still lodge Him in the manager.