^ The Nation some time ago gave the story of a business man, the inheritor of an honoured name and honourable business traditions, who had a temptation put in his way to abandon the old methods of his firm, and join a great trust that cared more for its dividends than the welfare of its workmen. There was money in it, and the man was sorely tempted. But on the night in which the decision was to be taken, he fell into a reverie in front of his fire, and he seemed to behold his old father looking at him, with such concern in his eyes ; and at the sight of his father's face the temptation lost its power ; he must act as his father's son.^
^ Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, ii. 312. 2 Bishop J. Percival. ' J. D. Jones, Things Most Surely Believed, 1 84.
EPH.-COL. — 5
Spiritual Architecture.
Literature.
Beeching (H. C), The Apostles' Greed, 83,
Bellett (J. C), in Sermons for the People, i. 104.
Colyer (J. E.), Sermons and Addresses, 173.
Findlay (G. G.), The Epistle to the Ephesians, 146.
Fleming (S. H.), Fifteen- Minute Sermons for the People, 122.
Greenhough (J. G.), Christian Festivals and Anniversaries, 155.
Holland (H. S.), God's Gity and The Gom,ing of the Kingdom, 29.
Hopkins (W. M.), The Tabernacle and its Teaching, 89.
How (W. W.), The Knowledge of God, 173.
Keenleyside (C. B.), God's Fellow- JForJcers, 11.
Lowry (S. C), TJie Work of the Holy Spirit, 42.
Pulsford (J.), Clirist and His Seed, 81.
Komanes (E.), Thoughts on the Golledsfor the Trinity Season, 141.
Skrine (J. H.), Saints and Worthies, 39.
Stuart (E. A.), in Sermons for the People, New Ser., i. 86.
Christian World Pulpit, Hi. 401 (Pryce) ; Ixv. 397 (Percival) ; Ixxix. 138 (Marshall).
Church of England Pulpit, xliii. 269 (Terry).
Churchman's Pulpit: St. Simon and St. Jude, All Saints, xv. 303 (Paget).
Homiletic Review, li. 290 (H. van Dyke).
Spiritual Architecture.
Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone ; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord ; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. — Eph. ii. 20-22.
1. St. Paul was a Jew, and the Jewish temple had the same fascination for his thought and the same powerful hold upon his imagination as in the case of other Jews. St. Paul had indeed ceased to worship there, but his attachment to the ideas that the temple represented was so strong that it became with him a favourite image and illustration of the Christian Church. Now as a building that temple was one of the most beautiful in exist- ence ; and as the chosen residence of Jehovah it was sacred in the mind of the Apostle. And yet one can hardly think that St. Paul was referring here to the temple at Jerusalem, for he was writing not to Jews but to the men and women of Ephesus, men and women who, for the most part, had never seen the temple at Jerusalem, and could neither appreciate its beauty nor understand the allusion. But then Ephesus had its temple too. Paul and the Ephesians were brought together on one occasion in very severe contest about the merits of this temple, the glory of their city, the temple of the great Diana of the Ephesians. That building was one of the wonders of the world. We are told that when it was erected all the architects of celebrity joined in constructing the plan, that it was reared of the most costly materials, and that after it had been burnt down by the hand of a madman or a fanatic equal care was exercised in the reconstruction of it. Every woman of Ephesus brought all that was costly and splendid to aid in the rebuilding of the favourite temple. It was a saying that the sun never shone upon a finer edifice than the temple
of Diana at Ephesus. This structure was quite familiar to the
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Ephesian Christians ; they had ceased indeed to be worshippers at the shrine, but they had not ceased to admire the building. Hence the singular appropriateness with which the Apostle points to it as a beautiful illustration of the church or the building of which he was about to speak.
2. What the Apostle is about to speak of is not any material structure or ecclesiastical organization, but the great spiritual fellowship of the redeemed in Jesus Christ. It is a Church in which living men are the materials, of which God Himself is the Architect and the Builder. Its foundation has been laid with His own hand on the ruins of the fallen temple of humanity. It has been in process of construction ever since ; its advancement has never been interrupted; it is still rising, this grand spiritual edifice ! One day the glorious structure will be completed. That is the Chvirch of which St. Paul writes — no earthly structure, no ecclesiastical organization, but this spiritual Church, built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets.
^ If you liken human life and development to a dwelling, the lower story is on the ground, and made of clay. How roomy, and how full of men that live next to the dirt ! Above that, however, is a story of iron. There are men of energy, and of a ruling purpose irresistible, seeking and gaining their ends at all hazards ; and this story is populous, too. The next story is dressed in velvet and carved wood, and here are they that dwell in their affections, and are brought together by the sympathy of a common gentleness and kindness — but on the lower levels of life. Above that is a room of crystal and of diamonds, and there are but few that dwell in it. Prom its transparent walls one may behold the heaven and the earth. Out of it men may see the night as well as the day — men who live a life so high, so pure, and so serene that they may be said to dwell at the very threshold of the gate of heaven itself.^