Gospel Teachings Poem by John Bowring

There was a day in ancient time
(It took its name from the bright Sun
That beams upon the orient clime),
When in the ripened corn-fields One
Of God's most eloquent instructors, wheat
Plucked from the ear, and to the crowd
Uttered His gentle mandate loud,
'These are Heaven's gifts-rejoice and eat.'


'The Sabbath,' said the holy sage,
'Was made for man a cheerful day;
When those I teach, from age to age,
Should be both gratulant and gay.
I bring them no lugubrious word,
I call them unto love and light,
And little they obey the Lord
Who make religion gloom and night.'