The Church A Temple Part 3

        Firstly, it is a spiritual house. The apostle Paul speaks of a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Here we may say with him, "that which was not first which was spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual" (1 Cor. 15:46)  Such is the order of Divine revelation to the human mind. We are led from the material to the immaterial. Common apprehensions fail to reach this, and there are many who never get beyond that which can be seen with the eye and felt with the hands. But in proportion as we gain insight into God's plan and are elevated by faith, we learn to value the things unseen and awake to the knowledge of a vast and glorious spiritual universe, of which all that surrounds us is but the husk and the emblem. Our Lord was continually engaged in lifting the minds of His disciples from all the glory of their physical shrine to the wonders of an imperishable house. You remember when they would have attracted His attention to the buildings of the Temple, He replied, “See not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be throwing down". (Matt. 24:2) All was to make way for a masterpiece of spiritual architecture, which only the wise and the believing have eyes to behold.

        Secondly, it is very obvious that, of this spiritual temple, the Builder and Maker is God.(Hebrews 11:10). It is for His glory and for His residence. The plan and execution are all His. In all ages of the world, His Eye has contemplated this structure, and His Arm is carrying it forward. In the spiritual temple, God is pre-eminently doing His own work; manifesting His own perfections; exalting created intelligences to purity and happiness; and producing those heavenly virtues which are more precious than all the marble, gold, and gems of the Earth, and which are wrought only by the Spirit of Holiness.