Thus all things lead to Charity, secured By THEM who blessed the soft and happy gale That landward urged the great Deliverer's sail,[322] Till in the sunny bay his fleet was moored! Propitious hour! had we, like them, endured 5 Sore stress of apprehension,[323] with a mind Sickened by injuries, dreading worse designed, From month to month trembling and unassured, How had we then rejoiced! But we have felt, As a loved substance, their futurity: 10 Good, which they dared not hope for, we have seen; A State whose generous will through earth is dealt; A State--which, balancing herself between Licence and slavish order, dares be free. FOOTNOTES: [322] The Statesmen of the Revolution, who hailed the arrival of William of Orange from Holland.--ED. [323] See Burnet, who is unusually animated on this subject; the east wind, so anxiously expected and prayed for, was called the "Protestant wind."--W. W. 1822. XXXVIII NEW CHURCHES 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!) 5 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, In rival haste, the wished-for Temples rise![324] 11 I hear their sabbath bells' harmonious chime Float on the breeze--the heavenliest of all sounds That vale or hill[325] prolongs or multiplies! FOOTNOTES: [324] In 1818, under the ministry of Lord Liverpool, £1,000,000 was voted by Parliament to build new churches in England.--ED. [325] 1837. That hill or vale ... 1822. XXXIX CHURCH TO BE ERECTED[326] Be this the chosen site; the virgin sod, Moistened from age to age by dewy eve, Shall disappear, and grateful earth receive The corner-stone from hands that build to God. Yon reverend hawthorns, hardened to the rod 5 Of winter storms, yet budding cheerfully; Those forest oaks of Druid memory, Shall long survive, to shelter the Abode Of genuine Faith. Where, haply, 'mid this band Of daisies, shepherds sate of yore and wove 10 May-garlands, there let[327] the holy altar stand For kneeling adoration;--while--above, Broods, visibly portrayed, the mystic Dove, That shall protect from blasphemy the Land. FOOTNOTES: [326] This, and the two following sonnets, were probably the first composed of these "Ecclesiastical Sketches." The "church to be erected" was a new one built on Coleorton Moor by Sir George Beaumont. (See Prefatory note to the series, p. 1.)--ED. [327] 1840.