shall be its sign to you: ye shall find a child wrapped in
swaddling-clothes lying in a manger."

And now, suddenly, before they could speak to the heavenly messenger, they
saw, not him alone, but the place full of the like heavenly beings. A
multitude was there; they came not as if from some distant place, but as
angels that ever stood round these shepherds. The eyes of the men were
opened, and they saw, besides the grassy slopes and feeding sheep, and
distant Bethlehem, and the stars above, a host of angels. Their ears were
opened, and besides the moving sheep and rustling boughs, they heard from
this great army of heavenly beings a song, rising to God and falling like
a blessing upon the sleeping world:--

"Glory to God in the highest
And on earth peace,
Good will to men."

In the lowly manger, a little child; on the hillside pasture, a heavenly
host singing His praises! Then it was once more quiet, and the darkness
was about the shepherds. They looked at one another and said,--"Let us go,
indeed, to Bethlehem, to see this thing that has come to pass, which the
Lord hath made us know."

So, in all haste, with the sound of that hymn of glory in their ears, they
left the pasture and sought the town. They went to the inn, but they
looked not there for the child; where the mangers were, there they sought
Him, and found Him lying, and by Him Joseph and Mary. There were others by
the new-born child, some who had doubtless come out from the inn at
hearing of the birth. "Whence are these shepherds?" they might have said
to themselves, "and what has brought them to this birthplace?"