God never had a church but there, men say,
The devil a chapel hath raised by some wiles,
read more

God never had a church but there, men say,
The devil a chapel hath raised by some wiles,
I doubted of this saw, till on a day
I westward spied great Edinburgh's Saint Giles.

"What is a church?"--Our honest sexton tells,
'Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.

"What is a church?"--Our honest sexton tells,
'Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.

An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat
countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot read more

An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat
countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred
to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and
stars.

No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n,
Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n;
But such plain read more

No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n,
Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n;
But such plain roofs as Piety could raise,
And only vocal with the Maker's praise.

The nearer the church, the further from God.

The nearer the church, the further from God.

A beggarly people,
A church and no steeple.

A beggarly people,
A church and no steeple.

Where Christ erecteth his church, the divell in the same
church-yarde will have his chappell.

Where Christ erecteth his church, the divell in the same
church-yarde will have his chappell.

There can be no church in which the demon will not have his
chapel.

There can be no church in which the demon will not have his
chapel.

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities
of twenty generations lie buried, in the Great Abbey, read more

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities
of twenty generations lie buried, in the Great Abbey, which has
during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose
minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the
Great Hall.