Logos Virtual Library: George Herbert: The Temple: The Church: The Windows

George Herbert

George Herbert (1593-1633)

The Temple

The Windows

Lord, how can man preach thy eternall word?

He is a brittle crazie glasse:
Yet in thy 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 rev’rend grows, and more doth wine

Which else shows watrish, bleak, and 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 staring thing,

And in the eare, not conscience ring.