The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1885-01-20

The Literature Of Cliidhood's
Prayer,
Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cincinnati Enquirer.
Everything has It's literature
Around the most prosaic duties of life,
the factors of civilization, the sports
of ancient and modern times, litera-
ture gathers, as crystals gather ar.und
a central star. 1t may lie literature
of prophesies or litera ure of memo
ries, literature ofsolid facts or a lit
erature of airy fancies no rule of
iron can be prescribed. The Bone
miaDs, the GreenlaDders, "Our broth
ers in black" primitive man, the man
in the moon, war, peace, home, skies
and oceans have clustered around them
a literature profound, pathetic, puz
cling and peculiar. The literature of
children, by which is meant not the
diluted reading matter prepared for
the little ones, but the literature of
their first loves and friendshi ps and
thoughts and unconventional ways is
voluminous. Literary men delight to
write of their early years, when the
trail of the serpent had not yet APP
peared on their hearts. There is Joy
in remembering that We once were
pure and not given to the erraticisms,
"the pomps and vanities of the wicked
world" There is no ''crown of sor-
row" in recalling a mothers smile,
fathers appreciation, or even the snow
covered graves in the old homestead
burying ground where they are sleep
ing in hope of glorious resurrection.
Perhaps one of the tenderest recollec
tions any man can have is that of the
evening prayer at mothers knee. Un-
fortunate is that man whose mother
did not teach him at night fall to FAY
''Now lay me down TO sleep
pray the Lord my soul 20 Keep;
III should die before wake,
pray he Lord my soul to take"
Men say that the opening sentence
of the Bible. "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the EARTH"
is sublimer in its simplicity than all of
Millions rich poetry of description.
Felix Mendelssohn was impressed
with the passage in the First Book of
Kings. "Behold, the Lord passed
by" and saw in it SO much beauty
that he determined to write IN oratorio
in which he could set it to music.
The Elijah" was the result. The
prayer of childhood, Snow | Law me
down to Sleep" to me seems grander
and truer in its spirit than the
elaborate liturgy of the Anglican
establishment or the stilted addresses
to Deity delivered in legislative halls
and religious assemblies. 1t is unaf-
fected helplessness casting itself upon
power; what is more or lees than this
cannot be prayer.
/ have seen children in time of
dreadful storms, when dark clouds
hung unusually low, and trees were
uprooted and fences blown down, and
we expected the house soon to yield
to the fury of the gale, steal into a
corner and repeat these lines of simple
faith. God knew what they wanted.
What are words?
The literature which has gathered
around this prayer has its burlesque,
as well as It's pathos. The following
instance has been ascribed to too many
men for us to say positively it was
such one. Two congressman (be as
sured they were congressman were
conversing, and freak of mind utter
ly inexplicable led them to refer to re-
ligion. Forthwith one of them began
to eulogize the Lords Prayer as most
touching and eloquent in its dictiou
be concluded by offering to bet SO
that his brother couli not repeat it.
The SO bill was covered, and the
congressman began: Now | lay me
down to Sleep" and repeated that
prayer to the end. Il am amazed"
the other said: 81 really didn't
think you could do it. The money is
yours" Perhaps the recurrence of
the word Lord is what led to this
ignorance
A large number Of poems have been
written on this prayer-frOm twelve
to twenty lines being taken for each
line of the prayer. The shortest and
one of the culest has gone the rounds
anonymously. In the anthology be-
fore me no name is attached, Here
it is:
"NOS / lay me-say it, darling"
"Iay me,'' sped the EiDy hips
Of my daughter knesling bending,
o er her folded finger UPS.
'fDown TO sleep'-''to Sleep she murmured
And the curly head dropped low
81 pray the Lord, gentiy added,
"You can say il all, know"
"Pray the LoTd"-the words came family,
Fainter still-"my soul to keep"
Then the tired head fairly nodded,
And the child was fast asleep.
But the dewy eyes half opened