Classic Poem

Ye Fishers of mankind! ye Lights ordain'd below
With Faith and Hope and Love unceasingly to glow!
Ye Preachers of the truth! ye Priesthood of My choice!
Incline your ear awhile, and listen to My voice.

Consider how ye stand apart from all the rest,
To minister within My Sanctuary blest;
And O, let not your lives unprofitable be,
If ye expect to dwell eternally with Me!

'Tis yours the Christian Law in vigour to uphold;
Ye are the Salt of earth, the Shepherds of the fold;
The Walls of Israel's house, the Leaders of the blind;
The Watchmen of the Church, the Lamps of human kind.

If its Protectors fail, how can the law endure?
If its own Shepherd sleep, what fold can be secure?
If Salt its savour lose, how shall it salted be?
And if the Lamp be hid, who then his way shall see?

My vineyard is your charge: take heed ye never fail
With rills of doctrine pure to keep it water'd well;
Take heed that ye the weeds with diligence uproot,
That so the germs of faith may freely bud and shoot.

My sacred Oxen ye, who on My threshing-floor
Tread out the grain that I have garner'd for the poor;
My Mirror ye, in which the ignorant and weak
Their law and daily rule of life and conduct seek.

Whate'er the people see that your own lives condemn,
The same they will esteem unlawful too to them;
Whatever they behold allow'd yourselves by you,
The same they will esteem that they may also do.

Have I not chosen you as Shepherds of My sheep?
Beware, then, lest ye be as dogs that love to sleep;
That, sunk in lazy sloth, no voice of warning sound,
When, envious of the flock, the wolf is prowling round.

Three foods there are on which My faithful people live:
The first, My sacred Flesh, which unto them I give;
The second, earthly meats, that nature's waste supply;
The third, the word of grace and immortality.

This word divine 'tis yours to all men to declare;
But how, in what degree, and at what time, and where,
It needeth careful thought, if that ye would not err,
And in your sacred work the risk of blame incur.

This of your office high moreover I require, —
Freely My gifts to give to all who them desire;
Freely, without reward; lest with Giezi ye,
Sharing his guilt, share too his shameful leprosy.

Freely I would that ye impart the Bread of Heaven,
E'en as to you and all most freely it was given;
Freely that ye absolve; freely that ye baptise,
If ye would bring yourselves and flock to Paradise.

Religious be your life, your conscience pure and clean;
Your soul with graces fill'd, your countenance serene;
Your manners sweet and mild, your habits order'd well;
Your conduct free from stain and irreproachable.

Beware of pride, that seeks to rise above its state;
Sober be your attire, grave and compos'd your gait;
And let not any cause in vile employs ensnare
Those hands, which of the Keys of Heaven have the care.

Your words, I would that they should brief and sparing be, —
Loquacity is but the nurse of vanity;
Much talk engenders sin; and every word ye say
Must give its own account upon the Judgment-Day.

In fine, be just and true, — be hospitable, kind,
Chaste, holy, prudent, meek, to sympathy inclin'd, —
Correctors of the bad, the fathers of the poor, —
And never turn away the wretched from your door.

Which if ye well observe, and live in truth and deed
A spiritual life, how great shall be your meed!
When, of this flesh uncloth'd, ye shall My glory see,
And in the stole be rob'd of immortality!