The Home Circle | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 7, 1881

The Home Circle.

I DO NOT LIKE TO HEAR HIM PRAY.

I do not like to hear him pray Who loans at twenty-five per cent. For then, I think, the borrower may Be pressed to pay for food and rent; And in the book we all should read, Which says the lender should be blessed; As sure as I have eyes to read, It does not say take interest.

I do not like to hear him pray On bended knee, about an hour, For grace to spend aright the day, Who knows his neighbor has no flour. I'd rather see him go to mill And buy the luckless brother bread, And see the children eat their fill, And laugh beneath their humble shed.

I do not like to hear him pray: Let blessings on the widow be, Who never seeks her home to say, "If want o'ertakes you come to me." I hate the prayer, so loud and long, That's offered for the orphan's weal, By him who sees him crushed by wrong, And does not for his sufferings feel.

I do not like to hear her pray, With jeweled ear and silken dress, Whose washerwoman toils all day, And then is asked to work for less. Such pious shearers I despise; With folded hands and face demure, They lift to heaven their angel eyes, And steal the earnings of the poor.