“ On Bethlehem’s quiet hillside,
In ages long gone by,
In angel notes the glory floats,
“Glory to God on high.”
Yet wakes the sun as joyous
As when the Lord was born,
And still he comes to greet you
On every Christmas morn.
Where’er his sweet lambs gather
Within his gentle fold,
The Saviour dear is waiting near,
As in the days of old.
In each young heart you meet him,
In every guileless face
You see the holy Jesus
Who grew in truth and grace.
Then sing your gladsome carols,
And hail the new-born Son;
For Christmas light is passing bright,
It smiles on every one. ”

“ Before I rise, the Sabbath-day
Will surely be begun.
Through all this week what have I done?
Have I been kind to all?
Have I sought anything but fun,
And run at every call?
Have I been still when I was bid,
And ceased to make a noise?
Have I been good in all I did,
At lessons or at toys?
I’m naughty every day I live,
Say many a foolish word,
But God can pardon all my sins,
Through Jesus Christ my Lord.
A child’s low prayer he will not scorn;
I’ll pray before I sleep,
And ask his love, then rest till morn,
For he my soul will keep. PREPARING FOR THE SABBATH
Haste! ”

“ When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep;
For you never shut your eye
Till the sun is in the sky.
As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveler in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star. ”

“ Fresh water from the brook, as clear as ever ran;
And twice within the day, when the ground is wet with dew,
I bring thee draughts of milk—warm milk it is and new.
“Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now;
Then I’ll yoke thee to my cart, like a pony to the plow;
My playmate thou shalt be, and when the wind is cold,
Our hearth shall be thy bed, our house shall be thy fold. ”

“ The pretty little lambs that lie
And sleep upon the grass
Have none to sing them lullaby
But the night winds as they pass—
While I, a happy little maid,
Bid dear papa good-night,
And in my crib so warm am laid,
And tucked up snug and tight.
Haste, kind mamma, and call them here,
Where they’ll be warm as I;
For in the chilly fields, I fear,
Before the morn they’ll die. MOTHER
The lambs sleep in the fields, ’tis true,
Without a lullaby ”

“ By many busy hands is shorn;
Autumn’s ripe fruits, an ample store,
Are gathered in for rich and poor. WINTER
Winter’s cold frost and northern blast—
This is the season that comes last:
The snow has come, the sleigh-bells ring,
And merry boys rejoice and sing. THE SNOW
Oh, see! the snow is falling now,
It powders all the trees;
Its flakes abound, and all around
They float upon the breeze.
’Tis snowing fast, and cold the blast,
But yet I hope ’twill stay:
Oh, see it blow the falling snow
In meadows far away.
Jack Frost is near, we feel him here,
He’s on his icy sled ”

“ And supper he has not.
Mary.—But then he is so useful, Beth,
His masters love him so!
Dear creatures, they do all they can,
And are content with snow. THE PET LAMB
The dew was falling fast, the stars began to blink;
I heard a voice; it said, “Drink, pretty creature, drink!”
And looking o’er the hedge, before me I espied
A snow-white mountain lamb with a maiden by its side.
Nor sheep nor kine were near; the lamb was all alone,
And by a slender cord was tethered to a stone;
With one knee on the grass did the little maiden kneel,
While to that mountain lamb she gave its evening meal. ”

“ To sing their parting carol.
The oriole hastens in his flight,
The swallow skims the water;
The whip-poor-will and bobby white
Join in the blackbirds’ chatter.
Tribe after tribe with leaders fair
All spread their wings for flight,
Away, away, high in the air,
Nor care for day nor night.
The fig-tree and the orange bowers
They soon will find so sweet;
The sunny clime of fruits and flowers
They with warm hearts will greet.
But when the voice of spring they hear,
They’ll sing their “chick-a-dee,”
And back they’ll come, our hearts to cheer,
“Tu-whit, tu-whit, tu-whee.” ”

“ He made the grass so green;
He made the flowers that smell so sweet,
In pretty colors seen.
God made the sun that shines so bright
And gladdens all I see;
It comes to give us heat and light:
How thankful should we be! ”

“ That carol on the trees;
I love the gentle murmuring stream,
I love the evening breeze.
I love the bright and glorious sun
That gives us light and heat;
I love the pearly drops of dew
That sparkle ’neath my feet.
I love to hear the busy hum
Of honey-making bee,
And learn a lesson, hard to learn,
Of patient industry.
I love to see the playful lambs,
So innocent and gay;
I love the faithful, watchful dog
Who guards them night and day. ”

“ Let all who breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God, to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King. THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS
The breaking waves clashed high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed,
And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o’er,
When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.
Not as the conqueror comes,
They the true-hearted came ”

“ I would love thee, and serve thee, and give thee the praise. THE SABBATH SCHOOL
Will you come to our Sabbath School?
I really wish you would;
Oh, come and join our infant class,
And learn how to be good.
We learn to sing, we learn to pray,
In our sweet Sabbath School;
And here we learn of Jesus, too,
Who gave the golden rule. ”

“ God helps him who helps himself;
O’er your lesson do not sigh:
Trust and try—trust and try.
“Cannot,” Edward? Say not so:
All are weak, full well I know;
But if you will seek the Lord,
He will needful strength afford,
Teach you how to conquer sin,
Purify your heart within:
On your Father’s help rely,
Trust and try—trust and try.
“Cannot,” Edward? Scorn the thought;
You can do whatever you ought:
Every duty’s call obey,
Strive to walk in wisdom’s way;
Let the sluggard, if he will,
Use the lazy “cannot” still;
On yourself and God rely:
Trust and try—trust and try. PERSEVERE ”

“ We scan the wide world o’er, nor find,
In any clime or land,
One single, sacred, treasured thing
Wrought out by Jesus’ hand;
But wheresoe’er a Christian child
Does on the earth fulfil
With humble, reverent, tender heart,
The heavenly Father’s will,
The work, though mean and poor to view,
With heavenly grace is fraught,
Since age to age it passes on
The lesson Jesus taught. ”

“ The morning sun is clear and bright,
With joy we hail his cheerful light:
In songs of love
Praise God above—
It is the Sabbath-day. THE BEST DAY
How sweet is the Sabbath, the morning of rest,
The day of the week which I surely love best ”

“ He hasn’t got a notion how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me he’s a coward, you can see;
I’d think it shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed!
—Robert Louis Stevenson. RUN AND PLAY
There, run away, you little things,
And skip and jump and play ”

“ When Jesus was on earth;
Then surely we are not too young
To sound his praises forth.
The Lord is great, the Lord is good;
He feeds us from his store
With earthly and with heavenly food;
We’ll praise him evermore. ”

“ So, Dolly, good-night:
Lie still without fretting or crying till Monday,
For we ought not to play, Dolly dear, on a Sunday. MY SHADOW
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all. ”

“ He knows full well how sad a place
Is this sweet babbling brook.
Had I a sister now to love,
How very kind I’d be;
Ellen, the little gentle dove,
Was always kind to me. LOVE ONE ANOTHER
A little girl with a happy look
Sat slowly reading a ponderous book
All bound with velvet and edged with gold,
And its weight was more than the child could hold;
Yet dearly she loved to ponder it o’er,
And every day she prized it more ”

“ A thousand boats for Dreamland are waiting in a row,
And the ferrymen are calling, “For the Slumber Islands, ho!”
Then the sleepy little children fill the boats along the shore,
And go sailing off to Dreamland; and the dipping of the oar
In the Sea of Sleep makes music that the children only know
When they answer to the boatmen’s “For the Slumber Islands, ho!”
CHORUS
Ho, ho, ho! ”

“ When you sit ’twill be still, when you rise it will move.
And when you are out some fine day in the sun,
I’ll take you where shadows of apple-trees lie;
And houses and cottages, too, every one
Casts a shade when the sun’s shining bright in the sky.
Now hold up your mouth and give me a sweet kiss—
Our shadows kiss too—don’t you see it quite plain?
“Oh, yes; and I thank you for telling me this;
I’ll not be afraid of a shadow again.” CHILD’S SELF-EXAMINATION
Ere I in sleep my eyelids fold
These things I must in memory hold:
What I’ve been doing all the day—
What were my acts at work or play? ”

“ Thy mother is shaking the dreamland tree,
And down falls a little dream on thee.
Sleep, baby! sleep!
Sleep, baby! sleep!
The large stars are the sheep;
The little stars are the lambs, I guess,
And the bright moon is the shepherdess
Sleep, baby! sleep! ”

“ Baby, baby, ope your eye,
For the sun is in the sky,
And he’s peeping once again
Through the clear, bright window-pane;
Little baby, do not keep
Any longer fast asleep,
Through your cradle curtains peep. THE BABY-JUMPER
Now, little Georgie, jump up high ”

“ Little hands and feet may serve thee,
Little voices sing thy praise;
Growing wiser, stronger, happier,
Loving Jesus all their days.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble deeds, not dream them all day long ”

“ So you see, Mister Peacock, you must not be proud,
Although you can boast such a train;
For many a bird is more highly endowed,
And not half so conceited and vain. BUSY BEE
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower. ”

“ And, strewed o’er many a battle-ground,
A thousand soldiers bled.”
“Did killing people make him great?
Then why was Abdel Young,
Who killed his neighbor training-day,
Put into jail and hung?
“I never heard them call him great.”
“Why, no—'twas not in war,
And him that kills a single man
His neighbors all abhor.”
“Well, then, if I should kill a man,
I’d kill a hundred more;
I should be great, and not get hung
Like Abdel Young before.”
“Not so, my child, ’twill never do;
The Gospel bids be kind.”
“Then they that kill, and they that praise,
The Gospel do not mind.” ”

“ DAPPLE GRAY
We have a little pony, and we call him Dapple Gray,
And in our little carriage we drive out every day;
How our happy hearts are bounding,
With his clinking hoofs resounding,
And his clatter, clatter, clatter, all the way.
They give our horsie water and they give our horsie hay,
And they give our horsie oats for his breakfast every day;
When clinking hoofs are ringing,
And our happy voices singing,
Then we clatter, clatter, clatter, all the way.
The nicest rides we have are in the month of May,
When we drive out in the country, and always some new way ”

“ Let the truth thy thoughts engage
From thy youth to riper age.
“Summer flowers will soon be o’er;
Winter comes, they bloom no more:
Fairest days will soon be past;
Brightest suns will set at last.
“Little child, now learn of me:
Let thy youth thy seed-time be;
Then, when wintry age has come,
Richly bear thy harvest home.” THE MERRY FLY ”

“ And, robed in splendor, o’er you
The new-born being flies.”
“Oh, yes, mamma; how brightly
It spreads its golden wings,
And flies away so lightly,
The gayest of gay things.
And God can give my brother
An equal power to rise
From this life to another
And dwell above the skies.” ”

“ And keep them safe and well. CHILDREN’S PRAYER
Gracious Lord, we look to thee,
Meek and humble may we be;
Pride and anger put away,
Make us better every day.
Teach us for our friends to pray,
And our parents to obey:
Richest blessings from above
Give them for their tender love.
May we find the sweets of prayer
Sweeter than our playtimes are,
Love the Sabbath and the place
Where we learn to seek thy face. JESUS, TENDER SHEPHERD
Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me ”

“ In the strength that through Jesus is given
To those who are doing thy will. GOD’S NAME
I must not use God’s name in vain,
Or ever speak a word profane;
For those who learn to curse and swear
The children of the devil are.
My little lips, oh, may they be
Attuned, O Lord, to honor thee. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
EXODUS, CHAPTER 20.
1. Thou shalt have no gods but me;
2. Before no idol bow thy knee.
3. Take not the name of God in vain,
4. Nor dare the Sabbath-day profane.
5. Give both thy parents honor due:
6. Take heed that thou no murder do. ”