 | [Poems by Stoddard in] Hymns for mothers and children |  |
iii
THE LAW OF LOVE.
Oh! if there is one law, above the rest,Written in wisdom; if there is a word
That I would trace, as with a pen of fire,
Upon the unsullied temper of a child;
If there is any thing that keeps the mind
Open to angel visits, and repels
The ministry of ill,—'tis human love;
And, in the yearning tenderness of a child
For every bird that sings above its head,
And every creature feeding on the hills,
And every tree and flower and running brook,
We see how every thing was made to love;
And how they err, who, in a world like this,
Find any thing to hate but human pride.
| [Poems by Stoddard in] Hymns for mothers and children | |