If Birds That Neither Sow Nor Reap

If birds that neither sow nor reap
Nor store up any food
Constantly find to them and theirs
A Maker kind and good;

If man provide eke for his birds,
In yard, in coops, in cage;
And each bird spends in songs and tunes,
His little time and age;

What care will man, what care will God
For wife and children take?
Millions of birds and worlds will God
Sooner than His forsake.

Author: George Wither

Year: 1641

This text appears in George Wither's "Hallelujah, or Britain's Second Remembrancer" (1641), a collection of hymns and spiritual songs. The style, meter, and theme of God's providential care (drawing on Matthew 6) are characteristic of Wither's work; no strong alternate attributions are known.