Where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel.

Where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel.

Oh! St. Patrick was a gentleman,
Who came of decent people;
He built a church in Dublin read more

Oh! St. Patrick was a gentleman,
Who came of decent people;
He built a church in Dublin town,
And on it put a steeple.

To Kerke the narre, from God more farre.

To Kerke the narre, from God more farre.

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.

Whenever God erects a house of prayer
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be read more

Whenever God erects a house of prayer
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.

When once thy foot enters the church, be bare.
God is more there than thou: for thou art there
read more

When once thy foot enters the church, be bare.
God is more there than thou: for thou art there
Only by his permission. Then beware,
That leads from earth to heaven.

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.

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?" Let Truth and reason speak,
They would reply, "The faithful, pure and meek,
read more

"What is a church?" Let Truth and reason speak,
They would reply, "The faithful, pure and meek,
From Christian folds, the one selected race,
Of all professions, and in every place."