Classic Poem

PARABLE XLVI.

The Children of the Bride-Chamber.

Saint John's disciples, and the sect
Of Pharisees, did much affect
The use of fasting certain days,
They, therefore, in familiar phrase,
Ask'd, ‘Why do John's disciples use
‘Strict abstinence, and thine refuse?’
Then Jesus thus himself express'd,
‘Can children, of the bridal bless'd,
‘Themselves with abstinence chastise
‘In joy before the bridegroom's eyes?
‘Long as the nuptial feast shall last,
‘In very truth, they cannot fast:
‘But soon enough the days arrive
‘That shall from them the bridegroom drive,
‘And then they shall their food forego
‘In downright bitterness and woe.
‘So, likewise, no man sews a patch
‘Of an old cloth, that will not match,
‘Upon a vestment that is new:
‘For otherwise the thing you sew
‘Will make the cloth contract and purse,
‘Until the rent be made the worse.
‘So no one will new wine infuse
‘In old and tainted jars to chuse;
‘Else the new wine will burst the clay,
‘And or be marr'd or waste away:
‘But wine that's just fin'd off and new,
‘Should have fresh receptacles too.’
?Both purposes you will destroy,
Or gladd'ning grief, or damping joy
But here the Lord's good-nature shines,
Who suffers by high-fed DIVINES,
‘Why could not we cast out the fiend?’
Because you have yourselves demean'd.
For miracles so great and rare
Come but by fasting and by pray'r.
But after all it was not right
To give up to each hypocrite
His own true servants to the last,
Whose food was better than their fast.