Like angels round a dying bed,
Its truths a heavenly radiance shed;
And hovering on celestial wings,
Breathe music from unnumbered strings."
CHAPTER IX.
INFANCY.
"A babe in a house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of
peace and love;
A resting place for innocence on earth; a link between angels and men;
Yet it is a talent of trust to be rendered back with interest;
A delight, but redolent of care, honey sweet, but lacking not the bitter,
For character groweth day by day, and all things aid it in unfolding,
And the bent unto good or evil may be given, in the hours of infancy."
The birth of each child constitutes a new era in the Christian home, and
multiplies its cares, its pleasures and its responsibilities. The
first-born babe, like
"The first gilt thing
That wears the trembling pearls of spring,"
throws the rainbow colors of hope and joy over the bowers of home, and
awakens in the bosom of parents, emotions and sympathies, new-born and
never before experienced; cords in the heart, before untouched, now begin
to thrill with new joy; sympathies, before unfelt, now swell the bosom.
Sleep on, thou little one, in thy "rosy mesh of infancy," in the first
buddings of thy being! These hours of thy innocence are the happiest of thy
life. Thou art "the parent's transport and the parent's care." Blessings
are fondly poured upon thy head.
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