A Mother's Love by: James Montgomery

A Mother's Love by: James Montgomery

A Mother's Love, - how sweet the name!
What is a Mother's love?
-a noble, pure, and tender flame,
Enkindled from above,
To bless a heart of earthly mould;
The warmest love that can grow cold;
This is a Mother’s Love.

To bring a helpless babe to light,
Then, while it lies forloen,
To gaze upon that dearest sight,
And feel herself new-born,
In its existence lose her own,
And live and breathe in it alone;
This is a Mother’s Love.

Its weakness in her arms to bear;
To cherish on her breast,
Feed it from Love’s own fountain there,
And lull it there to rest;
Then, while it slumbers, watch its breath,
As if to guard from instant death;
This is a Mother’s Love.

To mark its growth from day to day,
Its opening charms admire,
Catch from its eye the earliest ray
Of intellectual fire;
To smile and listen while it talks,
And lend a finger when it walks;
This is a Mother’s Love.

And can a Mother’s Love grow cold?
Can she forget her boy?
His pleading innocence behold,
Nor weep for grief – for joy?
A Mother may forget her child,
While wolves devour it on the wild;
Is this a Mother’s Love?

Ten thousand voices answer “No!”
Ye clasp your babes and kiss;
Your bosoms yearn, your eyes o’erflow;
Yet, ah! Remember this, -
The infant, rear’d alone for earth,
May live, may die,- to curse his birth;
-Is this a Mother’s Love?

A parent’s heart may prove a snare;
The child she loves so well,
Her hand may lead, with gentlest care,
Down the smooth road to hell;
Nourish its frame,-destory its mind:
Thus do the blind mislead the blind,
Even with a Mother’s Love.

Blest infant! Whom his mother taught
Early to seek the Lord,
And pour’d upon his dawning thought
The day-spring of the word;
This was the lesson to her son
-Time is Eternity begun:
Behold that Mother’s Love.

Blest Mother! Who, in wisdom’s path
By her own parent trod,
Thus taught her son to flee the wrath,
And know the fear, of God:
Ah, youth! Like him enjoy your prime;
Begin Eternity in time,
Taught by that Mother’s Love.

That Mother’s Love! –how sweet the name!
What was that Mother’s Love?
-The noblest, purest, tenderest flame,
That kindles from above,
Within a heart of earthly mould,
As much of heaven as heart can hold,
Nor through eternity grows cold:
This was that Mother’s Love.

Image: "The Teeter-Totter" by: Frederick Morgan from: http://www.erasofelegance.com

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