AUNT NANCY'S MIND ON THE SUBJECT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 197, 19 August 1881, Page 4

AUNT NANCY'S MIND ON THE SUBJECT.

[The following linos from an American paper will find a responsive echo in many a heart :— ] And this is the new New Testament, And 'tis come in the sweet o' the year, When the fields are shining in cloth of gold, And the birds are singing so clear ; And over and into the grand old text Reverent and thoughtful men, Through many a summer and winter past, Have been peering with book and pen, Till they've straightened the moods and tenses out, And dropped each obsolete phrase, And softened the strong, old fashioned words To our daintier modern ways ; Collated the ancient manuscripts, Particle, verb, and line And faithfully done their very best To improve the book divine. I haven't a doubt they have done it well, But it is not clear to me That we needed the trouble it was to them On either side of the sea. I cannot help it, a thought that comes — You know I am old and plain — But it seems like touching the ark of God, And the touch to my heart is pain. For ten years past, and for five times ten At the back of that, my dear I've made aud mended and toiled and saved With my Bible ever near. Sometimes it was only a verse at morn That lifted me up from care, Like the springing wing 3of a sweet-voiced lark Cleaving the golden air : And sometimes on Sunday afternoons 'Twas a chapter rich and long, That came to my heart in its weary hour With the lift of a triumph song. I studied the precious words, my dear, When a child at my mother's knee, And I tell you the Bible I've always had Is a good enough book for me. I may be stubborn and out of date, But my hair is white as snow, And I love the things I learned to love In the beautiful long ago. I cannot be changing at my time ; J Twould be losing a part of myself, You may lay the new New Testament Away on the upper shelf. I cling to the one my good man read In our fireside prayers at night ; To the one my little children lisped Ere they faded out of my sight. I shall gather my dear ones close again Where the many mansions be, And till then the Bible I've always had Is a good enough book for me.