p. 310 | CHILDHOOD

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 15, 1900

CHILDHOOD.

I took a piece of plastic clay, And idly fashioned it one day; And as my fingers pressed it still, It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again, when days were past; The bit of clay was hard at last; The form I gave it still it bore, And I could change the form no more.

I took a piece of living clay, And gently formed it day by day, And molded, with my power and art, A young child's soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone: It was a man I looked upon; He still that early image wore, And I could change him nevermore.

— Selected.