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III. Why don't you go to Meeting?

THE MOTHER'S ANSWER.

1

You may tell me of the meeting where you Dissenters go;
You may tell me of the liberty that you Dissenters know;
I am little of a scholar, but the question is not long,—
For he who stays away from church, I know, is going wrong:
There is a way that seemeth right, the holy Scripture saith,
In a man's own eyes, as yours does now, but the end thereof is death.

2

The fine old church! I love it well, with its tower so tall and grey!
There it has stood, where now it stands, five hundred years, they say:
The greatest joys that I have known, or griefs I've had to bear,
The warmest feelings of my heart, they have every one been there:
Shall I leave it and my Prayer-book now, to go with you and look
At the preacher whom you tell me of, that prays without a book?

3

My father and my mother in yonder churchyard lie;
And as they brought me up, I mean, by God's good help, to die:
I think 'twould almost grieve their souls, though I hope they are in bliss,
6

After all their teaching and their prayers, if I could come to this:
Their fathers too, before them, were Churchmen all their days;
I'll never be the first to turn to your new-fangled ways.

4

It was in church, that happy day, the happiest of my life,
That my husband said, “I take thee to be my wedded wife,—
To have and hold, from this day forth, in sickness and in health,
For better and for worse, and in wan't as well as wealth:”
And I scarcely think, whatever you Dissenters choose to say,
That she's an honest woman who weds another way.

5

My baby too! my darling one! you know not what I felt,
When with godfathers and godmother beside the Font I knelt;
And the Parson took him in his arms, and the Church's prayers were said,
And the water sprinkled on his brow, and the Holy Cross was made;
And all the congregation seem'd to welcome me again,
Giving thanks to God, Who brought me through my peril and my pain.

6

And when my precious baby died, I followed while they bore
His little coffin to the church, and then I wept no more;
How could I but take comfort, when I heard from God's own word,
The text that calls them blessed who are sleeping in the Lord?
No! I will keep the good old paths that all good men have trod;
And I never can forget my Church, till I forget my God!
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