Melmoth The Wanderer, Volume 2

Ye monks and nuns throughout the land, Who go to church at night in pairs, Never take bell-ropes in your hands, To raise you up again from prayers. COLMAN.

"I am not superstitious, but, as I entered the church, I felt a chill of body and soul inexpressible. I approached the altar, and attempted to kneel, -- an invisible hand repelled me. A voice seemed to address me from the recesses of the altar, and demand what brought me there? I reflected that those who had just quitted that spot had been absorbed in prayer, that those who were to succeed me would be engaged in the same profound homage, while I sought the church with a purpose of imposture and deception, and abused the hour allotted to the divine worship in contriving the means to escape from it. I felt I was a deceiver, shrouding my fraud in the very veils of the temple. I trembled at my purpose and at myself. I knelt, however, though I did not dare to pray. The steps of the altar felt unusually cold, -- I shuddered at the silence I was compelled to observe. Alas! how can we expect that object to succeed, which we dare not entrust to God.