---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 18
number: 2
published: 1914-12
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "The Star of Bethlehem", *Improvement Era* 18, no. 2 (December 1914): 158.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1802unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1802unse
start_page: 158
end_page: 158
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-12)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1802unse
  publication_year: 1914
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Star of Bethlehem

<!-- page:158 -->

—   !     — — !   !!   ;                      ;

           The Star of Bethlehem
O radiant Star divine
What glory and mystery were thine
That night
When thy light, transcendently bright,
Glorified Bethlehem town
Where, devoid of all trappings empty and          vain,
A King laid him down to rest,
Enthroned at his mother's breast;
For pain had hallowed the bed
That cradled his head
God's only begotten One
Yet didst marvel, O Star, thy rays flung afar.
That, wrapt in sleep, the little town lay,
Nor heeded the babe asleep on the hay?
For none, save the humble, and wise,
Heard the message, that night, from the skies.
The shepherds' souls were filled with awe
 N
   t the wonder which they saw
And across the wild and desert waste
The magi came in eager haste
To worship there
In Bethlehem, the fair
O would such faith,
    Star, were mine
To follow o'er a trackless way,
Through silence and through night a flaming light
To know when I had seen
Within the stable low and mean     —     '

In manger 'stead of carven bed,
When I beheld that little head,
1   looked upon a King!
Not fame nor riches, naught save faith.
To onward press when promised Star
Doth shine
For it hath ever led, as thou of old,
Unto a shrine
                                       Maud   Baggarley.