Is that lightning in your rod or are you a god?

[Terrance]

In England, the first lightning conductor upon a church was not put
up until 1762, ten years after Franklin's discovery. The spire of St.
Bride's Church in London was greatly injured by lightning in 1750,
and in 1764 a storm so wrecked its masonry that it had to be
mainly rebuilt; yet for years after this the authorities refused to
attach a lightning rod. The Protestant Cathedral of St. Paul's, in
London, was not protected until sixteen years after Franklin's
discovery....

http://atheism.about.com/library/texts/white/bl_white_chapter11.htm

Melville has a wonderful short story about a lightening rod salesman. Is
he a salesman or a preacher or....can't remember....

St. Paul's again. You know, we didn't discuss chapter 24 at all. Too
bad, it's a wonderful chapter. jbor provided an excellent summary and
notes, St Paul's figures in that chapter. Recall that St. Paul's is
compared with the gallows and the gallows is compared with the cross.
And the church, the gallows, the cross, are all considered in terms of
labor (free, slave, organized).  M&D is a labor novel.  Pynchon has been
interested in the history of labor since V. 

There once was a man named Lass
Whose balls were made out of brass
When he rubbed them together
They made stormy weather
And Lightning shot out of his Ass.