Songs and Ballads for the People, by J.M. Neale (1843)

Songs and Ballads for the People

By the Rev. John Mason Neale

London: James Burns, 1843.

XV. The Churchwoman’s Request, and Dissenter’s Answer.

“Take all you wish for, soldiers! Take wealth and goods away; But spare my precious baby The food it wants to-day!

“You have driv’n away my husband From his children and his wife; From his Church and from his parish, And he leads a wanderer’s life.

“So I am now divided From the husband whom I love; And my children have no father, But Him Who is above.

“Take all you want, and welcome; But only leave behind That vessel for my baby, And I will call you kind.”

Their hearts were hard as millstones, And they would not hear her prayer; And they flung away the vessel, And they left her in despair.

But God was with His servant In the hour of her distress; And He comforted the widow, And preserved the fatherless.

This was the way Dissenters Used to serve true Churchmen then; And perhaps, if they were able, They might do the same again.