ONLY a little baby girl, dead by the river side;
Only a little Chinese child, drowned in the floating tide;
If she had only been a boy, they would have heard her cry,
But she was just a baby girl, and so was left to die.
There they have left her little form, floating upon the wave;
She was too young to have a soul; why should she have a grave?
There's many another little one perishing every day,
Thrown by the road of the river side, flung to the beasts of prey.
Is there a mother's heart to-night, clasping her precious child,
Willing to leave these helpless lambs out on the desert wild?
Is there a little Christian girl, happy in love and home,
Living in selfish ease while they out on the mountain roam?
Think of the little baby girls over in China land,
Who seldom know a mother's love, or a father's guiding hand.
Ask if there is not something more that even you can do;
And if perhaps in China's land Jesus has need of you.
Only a little baby girl, dead by the river side;
Only a little Chinese child, drowned by the floating tide;
But it has brought a vision vast, dark as a nation's woe.
O, has it left some willing heart answering, "I will go"?
—Selected.