THE NEW YOR PUBLIC LIBRARI

ASTOR

TILDEN F

ROSE OF SHARON:

RELIGIOUS SOUVENIER,

FOR

MDCCCLII.

EDITED BY

MRS. C. M. SAWYER.

BOSTON:

A. TOMPKINS AND B. B. MUSSEY & CO.

1852.

THE NEW YORK,
PUBLIC LIBRARY
209480

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
R 1901 L.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1851,
BY ABEL TOMPKINS,

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.

WILLIAM A. HALL, PRINTER, 22 SCHOOL STREET,

BOSTON.

PREFACE.

TWELVE years have elapsed since the fair and youthful hand, to whose skill and careful nurture the Rose of Sharon owes its bright existence, timidly tendered its first flowers to the glad acceptance of a sympathizing public. Twelve times has it opened its annual blossoms to the day, each year shedding a richer fragrance, and beaming with a more refined and graceful beauty. Its soil has been a genial one. The sun and the dews of an ever-increasing favor and affection have caused its roots to strike deep and its branches to spread wide. Another season of blossoming has now arrived, and the fair flower, shorn we modestly trust of no portion of its wonted attractions, once more opens its virgin heart, and, by its beauty and fragrance, woos its waiting friends to take it fondly to their bosoms. Accept it, dear friends! Ye who have tenderly watched its growth and expansion from year to year; who have loved it for its own sake, or for the sake of one departed, the