Turning a corner, I came suddenly in sight of the
church, on the green down above me--a sheltered yet commanding situation;
for, while the hill rose above it, protecting it from the east, it looked
down the bay, and the Atlantic lay open before it. All the earth seemed to
lie behind it, and all its gaze to be fixed on the symbol of the infinite.
It stood as the church ought to stand, leading men up the mount of vision,
to the verge of the eternal, to send them back with their hearts full of
the strength that springs from hope, by which alone the true work of the
world can be done. And when I saw it I rejoiced to think that once more
I was favoured with a church that had a history. Of course it is a happy
thing to see new churches built wherever there is need of such; but to the
full idea of the building it is necessary that it should be one in which
the hopes and fears, the cares and consolations, the loves and desires of
our forefathers should have been roofed; where the hearts of those through
whom our country has become that which it is--from whom not merely the
life-blood of our bodies, but the life-blood of our spirits, has come down
to us, whose existence and whose efforts have made it possible for us to
be that which we are--have before us worshipped that Spirit from whose
fountain the whole torrent of being flows, who ever pours fresh streams
into the wearying waters of humanity, so ready to settle down into a
stagnant repose.
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