The Home Circle by Christian Register

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 19, 1883

The Home Circle.

By Christian Register

MAKE CHILDHOOD SWEET.

WAIT not until little hands are at rest Ere you fill them full of flowers; Wait not for the crowning tuberose To make sweet the last sad hours; But while in the busy household band, Your darlings still need your guiding hand, Oh, fill their lives with sweetness!

Wait not till the hearts are still, For the loving look and phrase; But while you gently chide a fault The good deed kindly praise. The word you would speak beside the bier Falls sweeter far on the living ear; Oh, fill your lives with sweetness!

Ah! what are kisses on clay-cold lips To the rosy mouth we press, When our wee one flies to its mother's arms For love's tenderest caress? Let never a worldly bauble keep Your heart from the joy each day should reap, Circling your lives with sweetness.

Give thanks each morn for the sturdy boys, Give thanks for the fairy girls; With a dower of wealth like this of home, Would you rifle the earth for pearls? Wait not for death to gem love's crown, But daily shower life's blessings down, And fill young hearts with sweetness.

Remember the homes whence the life has fled, Where the rose has faded away; And the love that glows in youthful hearts, Oh, cherish it while you may! And make your home a garden of flowers, Where joy shall bloom through childhood's hours And fill young lives with sweetness. —Christian Register.