Thee Old Church

 Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.

Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
– Mark Twain

Behind our new church, on the hill,
The old church used to stand,
As grim and rough as an old-time saint,
Stained by age, but never by paint,
With a willow on either hand.

A traveler, passing by that way,
As he looked the edifice o’er,
With a sense not quite so devout as keen,
Is said to have murmured, “God’s house I’ve seen,
But never His barn before!”

~ William Byron Forbush