Chapter 48

“Sweetit is to see a childTender, merciful, and mild;Ever ready to performActs of mercy to a worm;Grieving that the world should beThus a scene of misery;Scene in which the creatures groanFor transgressions not their own.“If the creatures must be slainThankless sinners to sustain;Such a child, methinks, will cry,‘Treat them gently when they die;Spare them while they yield their breath;Double not the pains of death;Strike them not at such a time,God accounts the stroke a crime.’“God is love, and never canLove or bless a cruel man;Mercy rules in every breastWhere His Spirit deigns to rest;We ourselves to mercy oweOur escape from endless woe;And the merciless in mindShall themselves no mercy find.”

“Sweetit is to see a childTender, merciful, and mild;Ever ready to performActs of mercy to a worm;Grieving that the world should beThus a scene of misery;Scene in which the creatures groanFor transgressions not their own.“If the creatures must be slainThankless sinners to sustain;Such a child, methinks, will cry,‘Treat them gently when they die;Spare them while they yield their breath;Double not the pains of death;Strike them not at such a time,God accounts the stroke a crime.’“God is love, and never canLove or bless a cruel man;Mercy rules in every breastWhere His Spirit deigns to rest;We ourselves to mercy oweOur escape from endless woe;And the merciless in mindShall themselves no mercy find.”

“Sweetit is to see a childTender, merciful, and mild;Ever ready to performActs of mercy to a worm;Grieving that the world should beThus a scene of misery;Scene in which the creatures groanFor transgressions not their own.

“Sweetit is to see a child

Tender, merciful, and mild;

Ever ready to perform

Acts of mercy to a worm;

Grieving that the world should be

Thus a scene of misery;

Scene in which the creatures groan

For transgressions not their own.

“If the creatures must be slainThankless sinners to sustain;Such a child, methinks, will cry,‘Treat them gently when they die;Spare them while they yield their breath;Double not the pains of death;Strike them not at such a time,God accounts the stroke a crime.’

“If the creatures must be slain

Thankless sinners to sustain;

Such a child, methinks, will cry,

‘Treat them gently when they die;

Spare them while they yield their breath;

Double not the pains of death;

Strike them not at such a time,

God accounts the stroke a crime.’

“God is love, and never canLove or bless a cruel man;Mercy rules in every breastWhere His Spirit deigns to rest;We ourselves to mercy oweOur escape from endless woe;And the merciless in mindShall themselves no mercy find.”

“God is love, and never can

Love or bless a cruel man;

Mercy rules in every breast

Where His Spirit deigns to rest;

We ourselves to mercy owe

Our escape from endless woe;

And the merciless in mind

Shall themselves no mercy find.”


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