ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
XXXVIII. NEW CHURCHES
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS
BUT liberty, and triumphs on the Main, And laurelled armies, not to be withstood– What serve they? if, on transitory good Intent, and sedulous of abject gain, The State (ah, surely not preserved in vain!) Forbear to shape due channels which the Flood Of sacred truth may enter–till it brood O’er the wide realm, as o’er the Egyptian plain The all-sustaining Nile. No more–the time Is conscious of her want; through England’s bounds, 10 In rival haste, the wished-for Temples rise! I hear their sabbath bells’ harmonious chime Float on the breeze–the heavenliest of all sounds That vale or hill prolongs or multiplies!