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