Zinzendorff and Other Poems/"Hinder them not"
"HINDER THEM NOT."
"'Suffer little children to come unto me, and hinder them not. But you hinder them by your example, and not by encouraging them. Their course ought to be upward:—do not hinder them."
Rev. Mr. Taylor, of the Seamen's Chapel, Boston.
Lock'd in the bosom of the earth
The little seed its heart doth stir,
And quickening for its mystic birth,
Bursts from its cleaving sepulchre,
The aspiring head, the unfolding leaf,
Exulting in their joyous lot,
Turn grateful towards the Eye of Day,
Hinder them not.
Thus, do the buds of being rise
From cradle-dreams, like snow-drop meek,
While through their mind-illumin'd eyes
A deathless principle doth speak,
Already toward a brighter sphere
They turn, from this terrestrial spot,—
Fond parents!—florists kind and dear!
Hinder them not.
Hinder them not!—even Love may spare
In blindness many a wayward shoot,—
Or weakly let the usurping tare
Divert the health-stream from their root,
Oh! by that negligence supine
Which oft the fairest page doth blot,
And shroud the ray of light divine,
Hinder them not.
Cold world!—the teachings of thy guile
Awhile from these young hearts restrain;
Oh spare that unsuspicious smile
Which never must return again;
By folly's wile, by falsehood's kiss
Too soon acquir'd, too late forgot,
By sins that shut the soul from bliss,
Hinder them not.