Lord, how can man preach thy eternall word?

He is a brittle crazy glass:

Yet in the temple thou dost him afford

This glorious and transcendent place,

To be a window, through thy grace.

But when thou dost anneal in glasse thy storie,

Making thy life to shine within

The holy preachers; then the light and glorie

More reverend grows, & more doth sin:

Which else shows watrish, bleak & thin.

Doctrine and life, colours and light, in one

When they combine and mingle, bring

A strong regard and aw: but speech alone

Doth vanish like a flaring thing,

And in the eare, not conscience ring.

George Herbert (1593-1633), The Windows.