p. 14 | The Home Circle by Hellen Rich

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 9, 1879

The Home Circle.

By Hellen Rich

If only Mothers Knew.

If only mothers knew, she said, How hungry children are for love, Above each virgin little bed A mother's lips would prove How sweet are kisses that are given Between a rosy mouth and heaven.

If only my mamma would kneel, As your dear mother, every night, Beside her little girl, to feel If all the wraps are folded tight, And hold my hands, her elbow fair Between my cheeks and her soft hair.

And looking in my dreaming eyes As if she saw some lovely thing, And smiling in such fond surprise On all my hopes of life that spring Like flowers beneath her tender gaze, I could not stray in evil ways.

I would not wound the gentle breast That held me warm within its fold; My mother's love would still be best, However sad, or plain, or old; And, even though the world forsake, I'd love her for her love's dear sake. —Hellen Rich.