<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class="">On Clergymen Preaching Politics </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Indeed, Sir Peter, I could wish, I own,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">That parsons would let politics alone; </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Plead, if they will, the customary plea, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">For such like talk, when o'er the dish of tea: </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">But when they tease us with it from the pulpit, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I own, Sir Peter, that I cannot help it. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">If on their rules a justice should intrench, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And preach, suppose a sermon, from the bench, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Would you not think your brother magistrate </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Was a little touched in his hinder pate? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Now which is worse, Sir Peter, on the total </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The lay vagary, or the sacerdotal? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">In ancient times, when preachers preached indeed </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Their sermons, ere the learned learnt to read, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Another spirit, and another life, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Shut the church doors against all party strife: </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Since then, how often heard, from sacred rostrums, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The lifeless din of Whig and Tory nostrums! </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">'Tis wrong, Sir Peter, I insist upon't; </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">To common sense 'tis plainly an affront: </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The parson leaves the Christian in a lurch, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Whene'er he brings his politics to church; </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">His cant, on either side, if he calls preaching, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The man's wrong-headed, and his brains want bleaching. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Recall the time from conquering William's reign, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">And guess the fruits of such a preaching vein: </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">How oft its nonsense must have veered about, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Just as the politics were in, or out: </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The pulpit governed by no gospel data, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">But new success still mending old errata. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Were I a king (God bless me) I should hate </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">My chaplains meddling with affairs of state; </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Nor would my subjects, I should think, be fond, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Whenever theirs the Bible went beyond. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">How well, methinks, we both should live together, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">If these good folks would keep within their tether! </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""> - John Byron</div></div></body></html>