Classic Poem

PARABLE LVII.

Adherence to the Doctrine of Christ

Then to them all our Saviour cries,
Beware lest you apostatize,
Or to the Pharisees ye make,
Or leav'n of Sadducees partake.
They thereupon conferr'd and said,
It is because we've took no bread
But Christ observing them, exclaim'd,
O scant of faith, most rightly nam'd!
Why do you tax yourselves with wrong,
Because you brought no bread along?
Do sense and mem'ry fail you still,
How five loaves did five thousand fill,
And what the baskets that remain'd?
And how sev'n thousand were sustain'd
By four, who did sev'n baskets leave?
How is it, ye do not perceive,
I spake not touching daily food,
But that ye should yourselves exclude
From that same leav'n whose horrors please
The Pharisee and Sadducees
Then by them it was clearly seen,
The leav'n of bread he did not mean,
But to the doctrine did object
As held by each dissenting sect.