The Preacher’s Mistake - by WM. Doane

 

1- The Parish Priest

Of austerity,

Climbed up in a high church steeple

To be near the Lord,

So that he might hand

God's Word down to His people.

 

When the sun was high,

When the sun was low,

The good man sat unheeding.

Sublunary things,

From transcendency,

He was forever reading.

 

And now and again

When he heard the creak

Of the weather vane a-turning,

He closed his eyes

And said, "Of a truth

From God I now am learning."

 

2- And in sermon script

He daily wrote

What he thought was sent from Heaven,

And he dropped this down

On his people's heads

Two times one day in seven.

In his age God said,

"Come down and die!"

And he cried out from the steeple,

"Where art Thou, Lord?"

And the Lord replied,

"Down here among My people."

 

"The Preacher's Mistake" by William Croswell Doane