Of Moses and His Wife

This Moses was a fair and comely man,
His wife a swarthy Ethiopian;

This Moses was a fair and comely man,
His wife a swarthy Ethiopian;
Nor did his milk-white bosom change her sin.
She came out thence as black as she went in.

Now Moses was a type of Moses’ law,
His wife likewise of one that never saw
Another way unto eternal life;
There’s mystery, then, in Moses and his wife.

The law is very holy, just, and good,
And to it is espoused all flesh and blood;
But this its goodness it cannot bestow
On any that are wedded thereunto.

Therefore as Moses’ wife came swarthy in,
And went out from him without change of skin,
So he that doth the law for life adore,
Shall yet by it be left a black-a-more.

John Bunyan