First Scripture Lessons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
Summary
’Tis winter, and the fire burns bright,
And by its gleams the while,
Looking the lovelier for its blaze,
Shines forth each storied tile.
A Mother, and her darling Boy,
Are placed the fire beside;
She is his kindest, truest friend,
And he her hope and pride.
The Bible, open on her knee,
Her narrative supplies;
And much those story-pictur’d tiles
Delight his wondering eyes.
She reads, and points, and leads him on
With love which cannot fail;
’Till deep into his heart hath sunk
The moral of each tale.
Thus is the Book of books to him,
By blameless art like this,
Made, even to his boyish heart,
A source of sweetest bliss.
And who shall doubt, in after life,
The knowledge thus acquired
Tended to make him, when a man,
What she at heart desired?
Those old Dutch tiles! those old Dutch tiles!
It was a happy thought
Which scripture lore by graphic aid
Thus to the fire-side brought.
I well remember, when a child,
The wonder and delight
It gave, to see what I had read
Depicted to my sight.
Though quaint and rude was each design
The artist there had traced,
Perspective at defiance set,
And groups but oddly placed;
Still every tinted tablet told
Of some familiar tale:—
Of David, with the sling and stone
Goliath, clad in mail.
Of Joseph, when a stripling youth,
By cruel brethren sold,
To be a slave in Egypt's land,
The story there was told.
And that of gentle Ruth, who went
In Boaz’ fields to glean;
And Naaman, by the prophet bade
To wash— and so be clean!
There, too, the Saviour, when a boy,
With learn’d doctors talk’d;
And here, upon the tossing sea,
At midnight's hour He walk’d.
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- Information
- Selected Poems of Bernard Barton, the 'Quaker Poet' , pp. 211 - 213Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020