“Any of you being a father”

Sermon on the Mount. St Matthew.

(The Gospel History, Section 43*)

Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets.

“Any of you being a father”

(The Saviour of the World, Vol II Book III Poem LVI)

“How doubt your Father’s love? So good are ye
That better than your God ye think to be?
Thy child asks bread—quick grantest thou his wish,
Nor giv’st a serpent when he asks a fish:
Is’t only thou who hast a father’s heart?
Thou, thou alone, who know’st a father’s part?
That very tenderness, I gave to thee
That thou, the little ones, bring up for Me:
Thou, too, a child, wilt thou not know Me kind,
Waiting to grant according to thy mind
If thou, what I may give, wilt duteous ask,
Nor with thy wilful cries My Father task?
That child who stone or serpent asks for meat,
Unnatural father, he, would let him eat!”

St. Matthew vii. 9-12