If Mary had known

As, she sat with her baby alone,

And guided so gently his bare little feet

To take their first steps from the throne of her knee,

How weary must be '

The path that for them should be meet;

And how it must lead

To the cross of humanity’s need,

Giving hissing and shame, giving blame and reproach for its meed,

Oh, I think that her tears would have dewed

Those dear feet that must walk such a hard, starless way to the Rood!

But—if Mary had known,

As she sat with her Baby alone,

On what errands of mercy and peace they would go,

How those footsteps would ring through the years of all time

With an echo sublime,

Making holy the land of their woe,

That the pathway they trod

Would guide the world back to its God,

And lead ever upward away from the grasp of the clod,

She had surely forgot to be sad

And only remembered to be most immortally glad!

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