God Builds No Churches

God builds no churches. By his plan

That labor has been left to man.

No spires miraculously arise

No little mission from the skies

Falls on the bleak and barren place

To be a source of strength and grace.

The humblest church demands its price

In human toil and sacrifice

Men call the Church the House of God,

Toward which the toil-stained Pilgrims trod

In search of  strength and rest and hope

As blindly through life's mist they grope.

And there God dwells, but it is man

Who builds that house and draws its plan;

Pays for the mortar and the stone

That none need seek for God alone.

The humblest spirit in mortal ken

Where God abides was built by men.

and if the church is still to grow,

is still the light of hope to throw

Across the valley of despair,

Men still must build God's house of prayer.

God sends no churches from the skies

Out of our hearts must they arise.

                                                            Edgar A. Guest