RELICS OF SAINTS
By John Henry Newman
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him.”
“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 straggling 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.