Could a mother forget a child who nurses at her breast? Could she fail to love an infant who came from her own body?
Isaiah 49:15
Words: Samuel Lover, in The Public School Singing Book (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Leary & Getz, 1846), page 142.
Music: Anonymous, in Children’s Praise, edited by Julius H. Waterbury (New York City & Rochester, New York: D. M. Dewey and Pott & Young, 1871), number 31 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know the composer, or where to get a good photo of him (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
There was a place in childhood,
That I remember well;
And there a voice of sweetest tone,
Bright fairy tales did tell;
And gentle words and fond embrace
Were giv’n with joy to me,
When I was in that happy place,
Upon my mother’s knee.
My mother dear, my mother dear,
My gentle, gentle mother.
When fairy tales were ended,
Good night,
she softly said,
And kissed, and laid me down to sleep,
Within my tiny bed;
And holy words she taught me there;
Methinks I yet can see
Her angel eye, as close I knelt
Beside my mother’s knee,
My mother dear, my mother dear,
My gentle, gentle mother.
In sickness of my childhood,
The perils of my prime,
The sorrows of my riper years,
The cares of every time:
When doubt and danger weighed me down,
Then pleading all for me,
It was a fervent prayer to Heav’n
That bent my mother’s knee.
My mother dear, my mother dear,
My gentle, gentle mother.