An Offertory

Mary Mapes Dodge

Oh, the beauty of the Christ Child,

The gentleness, the grace,

The smiling, loving tenderness,

The infantile embrace!

All babyhood he holdeth,

All motherhood enfoldeth—

Yet who hath seen his face?

Oh, the nearness of the Christ Child,

When, for a sacred space,

He nestles in our very homes—

Light of the human race!

We know him and we love him,

No man to us need prove him—

Yet who hath seen his face?