The Home Circle by May Riley Smith

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 29.

The Home Circle.

By May Riley Smith

LININGS.

Nay, nay, dear child, I cannot let you slight Those inner stitches on your gown's fair hem, Because, you say, they will be out of sight, And no stern critic will discover them.

You do but build a most inviting hedge, Behind which falsehood and deceit may lurk, When you embroider fair the outer edge, And to the inner give no honest work.

The silken chain of habit which you wear So lightly now upon your careless youth, Will strengthen strand by strand; then have a care! Else it may throttle the sweet soul of truth.

I hold that every stitch untruly set, Weaves a soiled thread along your web of fate; And each deceitful seam may prove a net To hurt and hinder, trust me, soon or late.

Ah, dearest child, on everything you do Let the white seal of honor stamp its grace. Keep all your soul as clean with heaven's dew As the pink flower of your tender face.

God makes no clumsy linings. Mark this bloom! A "fairy's glove"; and though it grieves my heart To send the smallest blossom to its tomb, We'll tear the dainty little glove apart.

In this and every flower that we behold, From crimson robe to pansy's purple vest, God sews the velvet on the inner fold, And makes his linings fairer than the rest.

Is it not perfect, from the slender stem To the brown dapples on the curling rim? God folds not carelessly the foxglove's hem; Then try, my little child, to be like him. —May Riley Smith.