What meant the fathers by establishing this perfectly living institution before the church,--this institution which needs no repairing nor repainting, which is continually enlarged and repaired by its growth? Surely they
"Wrought in a sad sincerity;
Themselves from God they could not free;
They planted better than they knew;--
The conscious trees to beauty grew."
Verily these Maples are cheap preachers, permanently settled, which preach their half-century, and century, ay, and century-and-a-half sermons, with constantly increasing unction and influence, ministering to many generations of men; and the least we can do is to supply them with suitable colleagues as they grow infirm.
Autumnal Tints - 1862, (p 47)