OF CHILDHOOD.
AN ANSWER!
"What is the Baby made for?" Why,
For hugging and kissing, and cooing and pressing;
For joy to the heart, and for light to the eye;
For tossing and tumbling and loving caressing;
For crowing and crooning and smiling;
For dimpling and pretty beguiling;
For fretting,
And petting,
And sudden sweet antic,—
For crying
And trying
To make us all frantic;
For trouble and care that can never be paid for,
Perhaps this may be what the Baby is made for!
For hugging and kissing, and cooing and pressing;
For joy to the heart, and for light to the eye;
For tossing and tumbling and loving caressing;
For crowing and crooning and smiling;
For dimpling and pretty beguiling;
For fretting,
And petting,
And sudden sweet antic,—
For crying
And trying
To make us all frantic;
For trouble and care that can never be paid for,
Perhaps this may be what the Baby is made for!
"What is the Baby made for?" Well,
For ruling the house with a sceptre imperious;
For making, as if by a fairy spell,
Our working time gay, and our playing time serious;
For ruling the house with a sceptre imperious;
For making, as if by a fairy spell,
Our working time gay, and our playing time serious;
For upsetting waking and sleeping;
For mixing up smiling with weeping;
And yet with such total surrender
Of our hearts to his whims and his splendor,
That we kiss the small rod while it schools us,
And love the wee tyrant who rules us:
Helpless and weak, to be cherished and prayed for,—
Perhaps this may be what the Baby is made for!
For mixing up smiling with weeping;
And yet with such total surrender
Of our hearts to his whims and his splendor,
That we kiss the small rod while it schools us,
And love the wee tyrant who rules us:
Helpless and weak, to be cherished and prayed for,—
Perhaps this may be what the Baby is made for!
"What is the Baby made for?" Dear,
Sometimes I think as a lesson solely
To us who are helpless as Baby here,
And worthless and poor, that God loves us wholly.
See! we have naught to commend us
Save what His mercy doth lend us;
Powerless, weak, and forsaken,
Until His love doth awaken!
Safely His arms do enfold us,
Like unto babes He doth hold us;
Sheltered, beloved, and protected,
Pleasantly led and directed,—
To show that our feeble endeavor
Is helped by His goodness forever,
With tenderness deeper than ever we prayed for,
Perhaps this may be what the Baby is made for!
Sometimes I think as a lesson solely
To us who are helpless as Baby here,
And worthless and poor, that God loves us wholly.
See! we have naught to commend us
Save what His mercy doth lend us;
Powerless, weak, and forsaken,
Until His love doth awaken!
Safely His arms do enfold us,
Like unto babes He doth hold us;
Sheltered, beloved, and protected,
Pleasantly led and directed,—
To show that our feeble endeavor
Is helped by His goodness forever,
With tenderness deeper than ever we prayed for,
Perhaps this may be what the Baby is made for!