ONLY A LITTLE BABY GIRL

a song by A.B. Simpson (public domain)

Only a little baby girl, dead by the riverside;
Only a little Chinese child, drowned by the floating tide!
Over the boat too far she leaned watching the dancing wave.
Over the brink she fell, and sank, but there was none to save.

If she had only been a boy, they would have heard her cry.
But she was just a baby girl, and she was left to die.
It was her fate, perhaps, they said, why should they interfere?
Had she not always been a curse, why should they keep her here?

So they have left her little form, floating upon the wave.
She was too young to have a soul, why should she have a grave?
Yes, and there's many another lamb out on the desert wild
Thrown by the road and riverside, flung to the beasts of prey.

Is there a mother's heart tonight clasping her darling child,
Willing to leave these helpless lambs out on the desert wild?
Is there a little Christian girl, Happy in love and home,
Living in selfish ease while they out on the mountains roam?

Think as you lie on your little cot, smoothed by a mother's hand;
Think of the little baby girls over in China's land;
Ask if there is not something more even a child can do.
And if perhaps, in China's land, Jesus has need of you.

Only a little baby girl, dead by the riverside.
Only a little Chinese child, drowned by the floating tide.
But it has brought a vision vast. Dark as the nation's woe;
Oh, has it left one willing heart, answering, “I will go?”

My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
~Ezekiel 34:6~