Upon the Sight of a Pound of Candles Falling to the Ground

But be the candles down, and scattered too,
Some lying here, some there? What shall we do?

But be the candles down, and scattered too,
Some lying here, some there? What shall we do?
Hold, light the candle there that stands on high,

It you may find the other candles by.
Light that, I say, and so take up the pound
You did let fall and scatter on the ground.

Comparison.

The fallen candles do us intimate
The bulk of God’s elect in their laps’d state;
Their lying scattered in the dark may be
To show, by man’s lapsed state, his misery.

The candle that was taken down and lighted,
Thereby to find them fallen and benighted,
Is Jesus Christ; God, by his light, doth gather
Who he will save, and be unto a Father.

John Bunyan