3-011-707 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Old Christmas", 1862. Lyrics by John George Watts, music by Thomas Murby. 'Fling wide the portals of the heart, Let fullest bliss abound, For December's frosty air The laughing bells resound. The stars are burning overhead, Their love-lit lamps divine, eighteen hundred years ago O'er Bethel they did shine. So Sorrow and Care, your presence we spare, For Christmas is with us once more. We'll greet the old fellow, So portly and mellow, And welcome him in at the door. Fling wide the portals of the heart; And every thought of ill That through the year hath stolen there Drive forth with earnest will. Let all the good and kind and true This season calls to birth, Throng in one glorious angel-group About your blazing hearth... Fling wide the portals of the heart, 0 Wealth, and where you find A needy fellow, drop your mite For love and humankind. Let hall and cottage, chief and churl, Quaff now the gen'rous cup That bright-eyed Gladness brims with wine, And Joy holds, tempting, up...Fling wide the portals of the heart, And young and old draw near, Exchanging smile for smile, perchance, Exchanging tear for tear: The tear, the sacred tear that flows When bosoms thrill with bliss. The tear that tells when lips are mute, How great our happiness'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.