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Show 48 THE L[IJEJtT\" UELf,, And all thy hopes would cherish ! If I sin, Pour thou thy Spirit on my soul within, And purify me wholly ; let me be Submissive as a lisping child to thee. Hush thee, my baby, on thy mother's breast; There helpless dear one thou may'st safely rest Thy future! still ita shadows darkly lower! Out of that darkness comes tho fatal hour, When, filled with boyhood's grace, or manhood's strength, Thou shalt be, sullen, made to stand at length To show thy sinews and thy limbs firm knit, For life-exhausting b.bor all too fit. How wilt thou bear the cane-field's rugged toil, Or dwell beneath the rice-swamp's plashy soil? Wilt thou not curse the Slave that gave thee birth, Polluting with her love the shuddering earth? Nay, curse her not, if still she, wretched, live; But that she bore thee, tenderly forgive ! TilE SLAVJo.l MOTJlE'Jt. 49 Remember all her tears, her prayers, her love, Her hope to meet thee in tho realms above, ·where, from all bondage freed, from strife secure 'Vhile ngcs joined to ages shall endure, ' She shall walk with thee through the fields of light, Where gentle spirits only wander, bright, And all tho air is love ! 0 Saviour come In God's own time, and take me to thy homo! Hush thee, my baby, on thy mother's breast Thoro sleep in thy unconscious, dewy rest. ' |