1. Lord, how can man e'er preach Thy Word?
  He is brittle, crazy glass;
  Yet in Thy temple is conferred
  This glorious and transcendent place,
  To be window through Thy grace.
2. But when Thou dost anneal Thy story
  In glass, Thy life to shine within
  The holy preachers, light of glory
  More radiant grows and more doth win,
  Which else shows waterish, bleak, and thin.
3. The life and doctrine blent in one
  As light and color mingled, bring
  A strong regard; but speech alone
  Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
  And in the ear, not spirit ring.