The church alone beyond all question
Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
[Ger., Die Kirch' allein, read more

The church alone beyond all question
Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.
[Ger., Die Kirch' allein, meine lieben Frauen,
Kann ungerechtes Gut verdauen.]

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it read more

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded
upon a rock.

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.

No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devill builds a
Chappell hard by.
[No sooner read more

No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devill builds a
Chappell hard by.
[No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devil builds a chapel
hard by.]

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.

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

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

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."