Classic Poem

PARABLE XL.

A Stone not to be given for Bread, nor a Serpent for Fish.

Ask! God shall grant it without doubt;
Go, seek! and thou shalt find it out;
Knock! they shall open for thy pains
For every one that asks, obtains;
Who seeketh, finds; who knocks, comes in.
For which, ev'n of the sons of sin,
Will give his child requiring bread
A stone for nurture in its stead;
Or if he should a fish demand,
Will put a scorpion in his hand?
If you, thus evil as ye be,
Can give things with propriety,
And for your children good select;
How much more, in the like respect,
Shall God your Father in the height
Give good things to th'importunate?
Then what you'd have your neighbours do,
In your ownself th'example shew:
The case your own you cannot err,
For laws and seers the same infer.