Nineteenth-Century Children's Crusade

(taken from "Strange Facts About the Bible" by Webb Garrison)

Before the Civil War children from two lands collected dimes and purchased stock to outfit a special Bible boat. More than 150,000 youngsters in this country and in the Hawaiian Islands invested their dimes in "The Morning Star" - a sloop built especially for the purpose of taking the Scriptures to the Marquesas Islands and the regions of Micronesia.

On her first voyage the ship logged more than 10,000 miles. The Bibles were received with such warmth that when the boat was wrecked, she was replaced by a two-masted vessel bearing the same name. Three more boats bearing the same name were later used as each one wore out taking the Holy Word to the coral atolls and volcanic islands of Oceania in the western Pacific.

Rock Me to Sleep Mother

Rock Me To Sleep, Mother

By Elizabeth Akers Allen (1883)

(Dedicated to my Mother who passed away 8 years ago today)

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again, just for to-night!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart, as of yore;
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair,
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep, --
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep.


Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you;
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, our faces between,
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I to-night for your presence again.
Come from the silence so long and so deep -
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep.

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever has shone;
No other worship abides and endures
Faithful, unselfish, and patient, like yours;
None like a mother can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain
Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep -
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep.

Mother, dear mother, the years have been long,
Since I last listened your lullaby song;
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhoods's years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep -
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep.