128

WHO TAKES CARE.

WHO TAKES CARE.

In winter where can be the flowers,
The leaves that look so green?
There's not a bud in all the bowers,
Nor daisy to be seen.

And who will bring them back again,
When pleasant spring comes out?
And plant them up and down the lane,
And spread them all about?

And who will bring the little lambs
With wool as soft as silk,

And teach them how to know their dams,
And where to find the milk?

And who will teach the little birds
To build their nests on high,
And, though they cannot speak in words,
To teach their young to fly?

The Lord in Heaven- -'tis there he dwells

Who all these things can do ;

And his own book, the Bible, tells

Much more about Him too.

SACRED SONGS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

FLOWERS.

129

FLOWERS.

GOD might have made the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small,

The oak-tree, and the cedar-tree,
Without a flower at all.

He might have made enough, enough

For every want of ours;

For luxury, medicine, and toil,

And yet have made no flowers.

The clouds might give abundant rain,
The nightly dews might fall,

And the herb that keepeth life in man,
Might yet have drunk them all.

Then wherefore, wherefore were they made,
And dyed with rainbow light,
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night?

Springing in valleys green and low,
And on the mountains high;
And in the silent wilderness,
Where no man passes by?

130

CHILDREN IN CHURCH.

Our outward life requires them not,
Then wherefore had they birth?
To minister delight to man;
To beautify the earth;

To comfort man, to whisper hope
Whene'er his faith is dim;

For whoso careth for the flowers,
Will care much more for him!

MARY HOWITT.

CHILDREN IN CHURCH.

WHEN to the house of God we go,
To hear his word and sing his love,
We ought to worship him below,
As saints and angels do above.

They stand before his presence now,
And praise him better far than we,-
Who only at his footstool bow,

And love him whom we cannot see.

But God is present everywhere,

And watches all our thoughts and ways:
He marks who humbly join in prayer,
And who sincerely sing his praise.

SEEKING GOD.

The triflers, too, his eye can see,
Who only seem to take a part;

They move the lip and bend the knee,
But do not seek him with the heart.

O, may we never trifle so,

Nor lose the days our God has given; But learn, by Sabbaths here below,

To spend eternity in heaven.

131

SUNDAY-SCHOOL HYMNS.

SEEKING GOD.

WE come in childhood's innocence,
We come, as children, free!
We offer up, O God! our hearts
In trusting love to thee.

Well may we bend, in solemn joy,
At thy bright courts above, -
Well may the grateful child rejoice
In such a Father's love.

In joy we wake, in peace we sleep,
Safe from all midnight harms,
Not folded in an angel's wings,
But in a Father's arms.

132

THE BEST OFFERING.

We come not as the mighty come,
Not as the proud we bow;

But as the pure in heart should bend,
Seek we thine altars now.

"Forbid them not," the Saviour said ;-
In speechless rapture dumb,

We hear the call, - we seek thy face,

Father, we come!

we come!

T. GRAY, JR.

THE BEST OFFERING.

LORD, what offering shall we bring,
At thine altar when we bow?
Hearts, the pure, unsullied spring
Whence the kind affections flow;

Soft compassion's feeling soul,
By the melting eye expressed;

Sympathy, at whose control

Sorrow leaves the wounded breast.

Willing hands to lead the blind,

Bind the wounded, feed the poor;

Love, embracing all our kind,
Charity, with liberal store.