"I am suspicious of that church whose members are one in their beliefs and opinions. When a tree is dead, it will lie any way; but when alive, it will have its own growth. When men’s deadness is in the church, and their life elsewhere, all will be alike.
They can be cut and polished any way. But when they are alive, they are like a tropical forest – some shooting up, like the mahogany tree; some spreading, like the vine; some darkling, like the shrub; some lying, herb-like, on the ground; but all obeying their own laws of growth, -- a common law of growth variously expressed in each, -- and so contributing to the richness and beauty of the woods.” H. W. Beecher.