Bear up the feeble reed!
(Kneeling with the child in her arms.)
And thou, my God!
Hear my soul’s cry from this dread wilderness!
Oh! hear, and pardon me! If I have made
This treasure, sent from thee, too much the ark
Fraught with mine earthward-clinging happiness,
Forgetting Him who gave, and might resume,
Oh, pardon me!
If nature hath rebell’d,