As shadows cast by cloud and sun
Flit o’er the summer grass,
So in Thy sight, Almighty One,
Earth’s generations pass.
And as the years, an endless host,
Come swiftly pressing on,
The brightest names that earth can boast
Just glisten and are gone.

Yet doth the stars of Bethlehem shed
A lustre pure and sweet;
And still it leads, as once it led,
To the Messiah’s feet.
O Father, may that holy star
Grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beams afar
To fill the world with light.

-William Cullen Bryand (1794-1878)