With infinite delight.
^ Paul seems to say to these Ephesians : " You have in your city a magnificent temple, the wonder of the world, the temple of Diana. It bears witness to man's need of worship. But you
84 SPIRITUAL ARCHITECTURE
know that that temple is not really a habitation of God. The eternal Spirit of God dwells not in temples of stone and marble. The one real temple of the Divine Spirit is the human heart. Ye are the habitation of God." Socrates, indeed, and the Stoics had taught this, but St. Paul's thought goes far beyond that of Socrates and the Stoics. It is not only the individual human heart, says St. Paul, that is the temple of God — it is a Society. " Ye are builded together," he says, " in Christ into an habitation of God in the Spirit." Here is the originality of the conception — a new conception of a Society so filled with the life of Christ that it may be said to be " in Him " ; built up, like some cathedral, into a glorious unity of idea, with infinite diversity in its members — a conception then new, now so familiar, of a Church, a continuous embodiment on earth of the Spirit of Christ. And this new conception, this dream, has been realized ; it took form ; it became a living organism ; it lives to-day ; it is the Church of Christ.i
2. The Church should reveal the 'poiuer of the indwelling God. — It is a " habitation of God in the Spirit." This is what no other society is or can be. The Church possesses Divine gifts and powers, because it is the abode of a Divine presence. It is a spiritual Society. The world looks on the Church and sees only a great organization, with mucli that is imperfect, much perverted, much incomplete. The Divine origin of the Church, the Divine presence with the Church, have never saved it, were never pledged to save it, from the consequences of human wilfulness or error. The world knows nothing of the indwelling Spirit which gives to the Church its essential character. How could it ? For we are speaking of that " Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him ; but ye know him for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Yes ; the very meaning and purpose of the existence of the Church is that it is the area, the clothing, the environment, the casket, of the super- natural. If it is not this, it is nothing; it is a mere human society, graceless, giftless, powerless. If it is this, it is verily " the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
^ In accomplishing the conversion of the world, the Church has two points to prove and testify — first, that Christ is alive and at work now to-day on earth, and that He can be found of them that believe, and manifest Himself to those that love Him ; and,
» J. M. Wilaon iu Tlie Guardian, May 29, 1911, p. 725.
EPHESIANS II. 20-22 85
secondly, that He is so by virtue of the deed done once for all at Calvary — by which the prince of this world was judged, and the world was overcome, and man given access to God. What proofs can the Church offer for these two points ? It has three proofs to give. First, its own actual life. This is its primary witness, that Christ is now alive at the right Hand of God the Father. This is the cardinal testimony. " Christ is alive, otherwise I should not be alive as you see me this day." And then this personal life of Christ in His Church verifies and certifies to the world the reality of that old life on earth, of that Death on Calvary, of that Eesurrection on Olivet. The fact that the man at the Beautiful Gate has this perfect soundness in the presence of all, the very man whom they knew and saw so lame, — this makes it certain that God did send His Son Christ Jesus to be a Prince of Life. And, therefore, the living Church bears a book about with it, the Gospel book, the Apostolic witness, the witness of those who so beheld, tasted, handled, the Word of Life, of those who were actually there all the time in which " the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us." And again, the body carries with it a third witness ; not only the Apostolic record, but the Apostolic rite, the act commanded by the dying Christ to be dono for ever as a memorial and a witness until His coming again. Ever that society rehearses this deed of the new covenant, that deed which is the seal and pledge to men for all time, of the one covenant sealed with Christ's blood once for all, even on the night of His betrayal Ever this rehearsal continues until Christ comes again, and every such rehearsal verifies, to all who take and eat the bread, that great sacrifice which the Lord offered when in the upper chamber among the Twelve, " he took bread, and blessed it, and brake." ^