Relics of Saints

“The Fathers are in dust, yet live to God:”⁠—
  So says the Truth; as if the motionless clay
Still held the seeds of life beneath the sod,
  Smouldering and struggling till the judgment-day.

And hence we learn with reverence to esteem
  Of these frail houses, though the grave confines;
Sophist may urge his cunning tests, and deem
  That they are earth;⁠—but they are heavenly shrines.