And God to me has been gracious,
     Though one of his children the least,
    For I have seen his token
     All glorious in the east.

    Yea, God to me has been gracious,
     And shown me the way of love,
    A revelation of goodness
     As fair as heaven above.”

    The kings sat down together,
     Communed in the breaking of bread,
    And each the heart of the other
     As an open volume read.

    They felt the new force within them
     Through fellowship increase: 
    The one he called it beauty,
     The other named it peace.

    All through the silent night-tide
     Their thoughts one burden bore: 
    There was a joy eternal
     Their longing souls before.

    But still they waited, waited,
     They hardly knew what for. 
    “What lack we yet, O Gaspar!”
     At length asked Melchior.

    “Three lights in yonder heaven
     Wait on the polar star. 
    Hast eyes to read the poem? 
     Dost see how calm they are?

    Three lights in yonder heaven
     Wait on the polar star;
    But we are two,” said Gaspar. 
    “Not two, but three we are,”

    Belthazzar said, dismounting,
     Another king from far;
    “And we whom God hath chosen
     Follow a greater Star.

    O, what are peace and beauty,
     Except they stir the soul
    And make the man a hero,
     To gain some happier goal?

    O, what are peace and beauty
     That stop this side of God,
    Though infinite the distance
     Remaining to be trod?”

    In haste, in haste they mounted,
     The kings in God’s employ,
    And quickly peace and beauty
     Began to change to joy.

    They left behind their kingdoms
     Whose lure was far too small,
    To keep them apart from the kingdom
     Of Him who is all in all.

    They left behind their people,
     Of loving and loved a host,
    The first of the thronging Gentiles,
     To love the Redeemer most.

    They left behind possessions,
     Their flocks in all their prime,
    In haste to greet the Shepherd
     Whose charge is the most sublime.

    They passed through hostile regions;
     For fear they halted not;
    And weariness and hunger
     Were less than things forgot.

    So on and on they hastened
     Where they never before had trod,
    And the flaming Guide that led them,
     Was ever the Glory of God.

    By night in yonder heavens,
     Within their hearts by day,
    As of old the blessed Shekinah
     Along the Red Sea way.

    And they have troubled Herod
     And left Jerusalem,
    The joy-giving Star before them,
     The Star of Bethlehem.