Sweeter and sweeter,
Soft and low,
Neat little nymph,
Thy numbers flow,
Urging thy thimble,
Thrift’s tidy symbol,
Busy and nimble,
To and fro;
Prettily plying
Thread and song,
Keeping them flying
Late and long.
Through the stitch linger,
Kissing thy...
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Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For ’t is their nature to;But, children, you should never let
Your angry passions rise;
Your little hands were never made
To tear each other’s eyes.Let love through all your actions run,
And all your words be... -
From the German by James Freeman Clarke
THE BELLS of the churches are ringing,—
Papa and mamma have both gone,—
And three little children sit singing
Together this still Sunday morn.While the bells toll away in the steeple,
Though too small to sit still in a pew,
These busy religious small people
Determine to have their... -
Now the day is over,
Night is drawing nigh,
Shadows of the evening
Steal across the sky.Now the darkness gathers,
Stars begin to peep,
Birds and beasts and flowers
Soon will be asleep.Jesu, give the weary
Calm and sweet repose;
With thy tenderest blessing
May our eyelids close....
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Dear Lord, let me recount to Thee
Some of the great things thou hast done
For me, even me
Thy little one.It was not I that cared for Thee,—
But Thou didst set Thy heart upon
Me, even me
Thy little one.And therefore was it sweet to Thee
To leave Thy Majesty and Throne,
And grow like me... -
For Night and Morning
THOU that once, on mother’s knee,
Wast a little one like me,
When I wake or go to bed
Lay thy hands about my head:
Let me feel thee very near,
Jesus Christ, our Saviour dear.Be beside me in the light,
Close by me through all the night;
Make me gentle, kind, and true,
Do what mother bids me... -
All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad,
The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road.The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road;
All in the April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak, human cry.
I thought on the... -
By cool Siloam’s shady rill
How sweet the lily grows!
How sweet the breath beneath the hill
Of Sharon’s dewy rose!Lo, such the child whose early feet
The paths of peace have trod;
Whose secret heart, with influence sweet,
Is upward drawn to God.By cool Siloam’s shady rill
The lily must decay;
The... -
LITTLE Ellie sits alone
Mid the beeches of a meadow,
By a stream-side on the grass,
And the trees are showering down
Doubles of their leaves in shadow,
On her shining hair and face.She has thrown her bonnet by,
And her feet she has been dipping
In the shallow water’s flow.
Now she holds them nakedly... -
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of sofa pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, “Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;”—
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till...