Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: )t Currjr.
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.
What is a church ?
A flock, our vicar cries,
Whom bishops govern, and whom priests advise.
What is a church ?“ Our honest sexton tells,
‘Tie a tall building, with a tower and bells. Crabbe. ’ ‘ P'N passing the eye over a varied and extensive landscape, its attention is caught by the tapering spire peering up among the thick foliage of distant trees, or by the sombre look of the time-honoured tower, robed in its dark green mantle of ivy; nor does the panorama seem to be complete without it. Whilst we contemplate it, perhaps the gentle waves of the soft breeze may vibrate with the faint monotony of the solemn knell, or bear along with them the airy music of the merry peal; each gives its own peculiar turn to the reflections; each adds its melancholy or its charm to the scene., …. In almost all English towns by far the most prominent, interesting, and venerable architectural feature is the Church; whose very antiquity, if that were all its claim, commands our reverence. We have reason to be proud of our native ecclesiastical architecture. There is an elegance and purity about it, which for simplicity and beauty, appears unequalled by that of any other country. That of the Continent is gorgeous in ornamental detail and in the splendour of its illuminations and painted glass, indeed in all that may be termed scenic effect; but there is throughout it something burdensome or fatiguing which immediately strikes the eye on viewing it. It may be that the eye so long habituated to one peculiarity of style, cannot easily reconcile itself to the pecu…
