Some mother’s boy has fallen low, we hear the broken sob
Of angels who have watched for years his footsteps turn from God. 
Someone’s prayers have oft been made o’er him in childhood’s day,
When, rocked in love, he knew no wrong, a smiling infant lay.

Some mother’s tears have freely flowed, and lonely vigils kept;
Some mother’s heart has often bled while others coldly slept;
Some mother suffers for the wrong, and angels sadly weep
Whene’er some careless, wayward son has sown what he must reap.

A scaffold high with spreading arms on yonder height we see,
It waits to take its victim’s life, exulting cruelly. 
While zephyr’s blow, birds hover o’er a soul in dire distress,
With troubled gaze breathes out a prayer.  Will God attend and bless?

What matter if he’s clothed in sin, what matter if he’s wild,
In foulest guilt?  Remember, that, he is somebody’s child. 
We cannot tell how hard he strove to shun temptation’s snare;
How often on his mother’s breast he wept in his despair.

How oft her lips had softly pressed his dimpled infant cheek,
How oft her hand in love caressed the sinless baby feet. 
Then, strangers, pause and listen well; so might your own have been,
But Christ can freely pardon all, though scarlet be his sin.

Some mother’s boy!  The sweet refrain is breathed in accents mild. 
Some mother’s boy!  If bent and gray, if pure or all denied. 
Some mother’s boy!  Soft bells repeat in sad and sweetest chime;
Some mother’s boy!  A mother sighs; perhaps he may be mine.

The Gift.

God calls you, my Daughter—­I hear the sweet voice
Of Jesus our Saviour, He would make you His choice,
To work in His vineyard, to teach in His name;
He’d give you the power, lost souls to reclaim.

I give you, my darling, an offering to Him
Who died to redeem us, to save us from sin;
Be filled with His spirit, be strong in the strife,
Bring souls unto Jesus, in Christ there is life.

And when all is over and we meet on the shore
Of Heaven’s fair Jordan, to part nevermore,
With Christ ever present to soothe away tears,
All pain we’ll forget of these sorrowful years.

Thou Waters, Tell Me Why.

O’er rocks where sea waves wrestled, far from yon city’s height
A woman walked ’mid shadows, and watched for morning light. 
A woman strong with purpose, though burdened with life’s care,
The silvered tints of starlight matched threads in gold-brown hair.

    CHORUS.

    But her heart and the waves grew restless,
      As she thought of years gone by,
    Of him she once loved truly—­
      Cried, waters, tell me why,
      Thou waters tell me why!

Aged rocks lend me thy power ’gainst winds and tempest wild: 
A woman’s strife before me, I fain would be a child. 
Long since ’twas said at parting, “Forever, love, good-bye.” 
And life merged into duty, Oh, waters, tell me why!