I sit me down at eventide
Day's cares receding far,
When sweet! a whisper at my side,
"Mama, come see my star!"
"The only one in all the sky
Away up--Oh, so far!
And yet it shines so beautiful,
My own, dear, lovely star!"
Oh! child of many hopes and fears;
Of many an anxious thought;
Oh life! with parents' prayers and tears,
So oft from Heaven besought.
If spared to pass the tender years
Of infancy and truth;
God keep thee through the slippery path
Of boyhood, and of youth.
And guide thee by His own right hand
In wisdom's pleasant way;
And never in foul vice's snares
Permit thy feet to stray.
And when that love which gazeth now
Into thy sunny eyes
Can only come, at God's good will
In message from the skies.
Oh! should the tempter's net be spread,
Look upward! do not fear;
From 'yond thy star, a mother's love
Will shine thy way to cheer.
If e'er thou reachest manhood's prime,
'Mid pleasures of this world
Let ever, in truth's sacred cause
Thy banner be unfurled.
May all the graces which adorn
Great minds in thee excel;
May't long be said of thee "he served
His generation well."
Thy emblem be yon evening star;
Aye steady in its light;
Calm-peering o'er a world of change;
Ne'er stooping from its height.
When darkness deepens all around,
And rivals fill the field;
Let faith and courage arm thy soul,
And form thy radiant shield.
Then, when thy golden hue of morn
Gives place to sober grey;
And years which never-ending seem
Have fled like one short day.
Relying on that Mighty One
Who raised the starry frame;
Who through life's changes, toils and tears,
Abideth still the same.
Thy feet shall out the swelling flood,
Step safe upon the strand;
And mayhap then, a mother's love
Again shall clasp thy hand,
And lead thee, 'yond thy shining star,
Into the deathless land.