Wilton Agnew Barrett: "A New England Church"

THE WHITE church on the hill

     Looks over the little bay --

A beautiful thing on the hill

     When the mist is gray;

When the hills look old, and the air turns cold

     With the dying day!

The white church on the hill --

     A Greek in a Puritan town --

Was built on the brow of the hill

     For John Wesley's God's renown,

And a conscience old set a steeple cold

     On its Grecian crown.

In a storm of faith on the hill

     Hands raised it over the bay

When the night is clear on the hill,

     It stands up strong and gray;

But its door is old, and the tower points cold

     To the Milky Way.

The white church on the hill

     Looks lonely over the town

Dim to them under the hill

     Is its God's renown,

And its Bible old, and its creed grown cold  

     And the letters brown.