1. <br /> <br />The egg's no chick by falling from the hen; <br />Nor man a Christian, till he's born again. <br />The egg's at first contained in the shell; <br />Men, afore grace, in sins and darkness dwell. <br />The egg, when laid, by warmth is made a chicken, <br />And Christ, by grace, those dead in sin doth quicken. <br />The egg, when first a chick, the shell's its prison; <br />So's flesh to the soul, who yet with Christ is risen. <br />The shell doth crack, the chick doth chirp and peep, <br />The flesh decays, as men do pray and weep. <br />The shell doth break, the chick's at liberty, <br />The flesh falls off, the soul mounts up on high <br />But both do not enjoy the self-same plight; <br />The soul is safe, the chick now fears the kite. <br /> <br />2. <br /> <br />But chicks from rotten eggs do not proceed, <br />Nor is a hypocrite a saint indeed. <br />The rotten egg, though underneath the hen, <br />If crack'd, stinks, and is loathsome unto men. <br />Nor doth her warmth make what is rotten sound; <br />What's rotten, rotten will at last be found. <br />The hypocrite, sin has him in possession, <br />He is a rotten egg under profession. <br /> <br />3. <br /> <br />Some eggs bring cockatrices; and some men <br />Seem hatch'd and brooded in the viper's den. <br />Some eggs bring wild-fowls; and some men there be <br />As wild as are the wildest fowls that flee. <br />Some eggs bring spiders, and some men appear <br />More venom'd than the worst of spiders are.[16] <br />Some eggs bring piss-ants, and some seem to me <br />As much for trifles as the piss-ants be. <br />Thus divers eggs do produce divers shapes, <br />As like some men as monkeys are like apes. <br />But this is but an egg, were it a chick, <br />Here had been legs, and wings, and bones to pick.<br /><br />John Bunyan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/meditations-upon-an-egg/
