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Who Loves Me Best?

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1863

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 22, No. 8.

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Who Loves Me Best?

Who loves me best?—my mother sweet, Whose every look with love's replete; Who held me, an infant, on her knee,— Who hath ever watched me tenderly; And yet I have heard my mother say, That she sometime must pass away; Who then shall shield me from earthly ill? Some one must love me better still.
Who loves me best?—my father dear, Who loveth to have me always near; He whom I fly each eve to meet, When passed away is the noontide heat; Who from the bank where the sunbeam lies, Brings me the wild wood strawberries. O he is as dear as my mother to me— But he will perish, even as she.
Who loves me best?—the gentle dove, That I have tamed with my childish love; That every one, save myself, doth fear, Whose soft coo soundeth when I come near; Yet perhaps it but loves me because I bring To its cage the drops from the clearest spring, And hang green branches around the door: Something, surely, must love me more.
Who loves me best?—my sister fair, With her laughing eyes and clustering hair; Who flowers around my head doth twine, Who presseth her rosy lips to mine, Who singeth me songs in her artless glee— Can any love me better than she? Yet when I asked, that sister confessed Of all she did not love me best.
Who loves me best?—my brother young, With his healthy cheek and lisping tongue; Who delighteth to lead me in merry play Far down the green-wood's bushy way, Who showeth me where the hazel nuts grow, And where the fairest field-flowers blow; Yet perhaps he loves me no more than the rest— How shall I find who loves me best?
My mother loves me, but she may die: My white dove loves me, but that may fly; My father loves me—he may be changed; I have heard of brothers and sisters estranged, If they should forsake me, what should I do? Where should I bear my sad heart to? Some one, surely, would be my stay— Some one must love me better than they?
Yes, fair child, there is One above, Who loves thee with an unchangeable love: He who formed those frail, dear things, To which thy young heart fondly clings— Even though all should forsake thee, still He would protect thee through every ill, O is not such love worth all the rest? Child, it is God who loves thee best!