Weekly Trinity journal., 1879-09-20
ROCK NE TO SLEEP, MOTHER
Backward. turn backward, oh time in your

Backward. turn backward, oh time in your
fight?
Make me n child again, just for tonight.
Mother, come back from the echoless shore
Take me to your heart again, just as of yore.
Who that has read this beautiful poem
can fail to perceive in its touching lines
the yearnings ofan orphaned heart, the
prayer Of one who has weighed life will
its accumulation of pleasures and pains
triumphs and humilations, in the balance
and found it wanting in the capacity tC
satisfy the "ceasless longing, the forever
signing for the far off 'unattninable and
dim" How many men and women
there are who have grown weary with
the dreary round Of existence, and the
heartcss display of the world, who fain
would have the chariot wheels of time
turn backward, until they reach the hal
lowed days OF infancy, when they were
"rockcd to sleep" in the arms of now
sainted mother. Then, the years were re
cords Of childish innocence, each fair
page written by little less than ange!
hands, unblotted by tears unstnined by
sin. Now, it may be they have grown
callous, apparently lost to all that is good
and noble, and in contrasting the long
train Of evil deeds, the dark record which
yearning for something holier, more sat
isfying, than the depraved life they have
led, something more in accordance with
tho teachings of that mother whose
blessed memory, is the one bright, strong
link connecting the guleless past with
the guilty present. Rock me to sleep,
mother!" 1t is the echo of our first sim
PIE prayer, and the good night kiss, the
last murmur of the little dreamer as the
guardian angels folds their wings about
the tiny bed. No care for the morrow,
10 failures to dread, no disappointments
to bewail Rock me to sleep p!'-typical
Of perfect rest, perfect trust, such as the
after years can never bring.
Over my heart in the days that have flown,
No love like mother love ever has shone.
No other worship abides and endures
Faithful, unselLsh and patient like yours.
Others may profess the deepest, purest
affection, and while all is prosperous, be-
stow every kindness, every proof Of de-
votion; but let the slanderers foul breath
sulIy the purity of that IDOLS character
and that love turns to hatred, that kind.
ness to scorn and derision. Not so with
n mothers love. Let clouds of mlsfor'
tune gather in your sky, lie: the world
brand your name with infamy, still, yor
are her child, and amidst all the jeers anc
frowns of the world, the star of mother
love never grows dim.
Those who vowed eternal friendship
may prove false, brothers and sisters may
greet you as strangers, but a mother
love will last when all, save, that of tn
Omnpotent, has become smouiderinl
ashes!
| Never hereafter to wake or to weep,
! Rock me to sleep, mother. rock me to sleep.
O! how many of earth's disappoint
ed ones weary with the battle Of life
weary with its tears, its withered flower
and cruel thorns, its broken VOWS an(
shattered hopes, long to close their eye
in that sleep from which they shall neve
more "wake to weep but dream on
dream on, the brightest dreams forever
And methnks upon the Threshold o
that "house on high" there are mother
waiting to welcome their loved ones, anC
take them to their heart again" in thu
embrace which death no moro can part
Myrtle.