Second Sermon for the Dedication of a Church: On the Kind of Temple God Requires Us to Build } for Him

“ That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts.” —Ephes. iii. 17.

Long ago a glorious king and a great prophet of the Lord, none other in fact than holy David, began to occupy his mind with a consideration full of piety. He judged it an unbecoming thing that the Lord God of Sabaoth had as yet no house upon earth, whilst he, the king, dwelt in a palace of royal magnificence (2 Kings vii. 2). My brethren, this is a matter which from us also demands serious thought, yea, and high courage in translating thought into action. It is true, indeed, that although God was pleased with the Prophet’s design, the accomplishment of that design was reserved to his son Solomon. But that is another question, the discussion of which would lead us perhaps too far afield. As for thee, O my soul, thou in truth art dwelling in a noble mansion which the Lord Himself hath built for thee. I speak of thy body, which the Creator has so fashioned, so furnished, so adorned and disposed that thou mayest live in it with equal honour and delight; yea, and even for the body itself, He has also built a dwelling-place, lofty, commodious, and beautiful, that is to say, this visible and habitable earth. Does it not therefore seem to thee unworthy that thou shouldst hesitate to build a house for Him Who has provided thee with so good a house? This house of thine is still standing: but know for certain that it will fall very soon. Then, unless thou art careful meantime to prepare for thyself another, thou shalt be exposed to the winds and the rains and the cold. Alas! ‘‘ Who shall stand before the face of this cold?” (Ps. cxlvii. 17). Happy, therefore, and thrice happy, the soul that can say with the Apostle, ‘‘We know that, if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven ” (2 Cor. v. 1). Consequently, O my soul, thou shouldst not “ give sleep to thine eyes, or slumber to thine eyelids, or rest to thy temples, until thou findest out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob ” (Ps. CXXxXl. 4, 5).

But what think you, brethren? Where shall we find a site for this edifice, and what architect must we engage to build it? As for this material and visible temple, it is for us and for our habitation that it has been built, because the Most High ‘‘dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts xvii. 24). What temple, therefore, shall we build for Him Who has said, “‘ Do not I fill heaven and earth ? ” (Jer. xiii. 24). Brethren, I should be greatly troubled “and my spirit would be in anguish within me” (Ps. cxlii. 4) did I not hear the Lord Jesus saying to His disciples, “‘ If any man love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him ” (John xiv. 13). But now I know where I have to make ready a house for the Lord, because His image alone is capable of containing Him. The soul is capable of receiving Him because the soul has been created to His image. Make haste, then, O

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Sion, and adorn thy nuptial-couch, ‘‘ because the Lord hath been well pleased with thee, and thy land shall be inhabited ” (Is. lxii. 4). “ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion ” (Zach. ix. 9): thy God will make His abode in thee. Say to Him with Mary, “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word ” (Luke i. 38). Say to Him according to the words of holy Elizabeth, ‘‘ And whence is this to me that the Majesty of my Lord should come to me” (ibid. 43). Oh, how great is the goodness of God! how great His condescension! And how great the dignity and glory of human souls in which “ the Lord of all things, Who hath need of nothing ” (2 Mach. xiv. 35) commands a temple to be built for Him! ! Therefore, dearest brethren, let us endeavour with all ardour of desire and with all thanksgiving to build a temple to the Lord in our souls. Let it be our first solicitude that He shall dwell in each of us singly, and then let us try to induce Him to make His abode in us as a community also : for He is too good to despise us, whether as a body or one by one. In the first place, accordingly, we must each of us strive to have no discord or division in his soul, because, “ every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation and house upon house shall fall ” (Luke xi. 17). Christ will not enter there where the walls are leaning and the fences tottering (Ps. lxi. 4). For does not the soul desire to have her own house intact, and would she not be obliged to abandon it were its members severed and disjoined from each other? Consequently, if she wishes that Christ should dwell by faith in her heart (Ephes. iii. 17), that is, in herself, let her be careful to allow no dissension amongst her members, by which

I mean the understanding, the will, and the memory. © Therefore, let the understanding be free from error so that it may be in accord with the will, for thus it shall be pleasing to the will. And let the will be free from iniquity, for thus it shall have the approval of the understanding. But if, on account of the iniquity of the will, the soul has to reproach herself with neglect of that which the understanding approves, she becomes at once the theatre of civil strife and ruinous discord, because the understanding never ceases to censure, to accuse, to judge and condemn the vitiated will. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, “ Be at agreement with thy adversary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison ” (Matt. v. 25). Let thy memory also be free from stain, suffering no sin to remain in it which has not been washed out by a sincere confession and “worthy fruits of penance’’ (Matt. iii. 8). For the conscience where sin lies hidden is an object of hatred to the will and of abomination to the understanding. He, therefore, has prepared a worthy house for God whose understanding is not deluded, whose will is not perverted, and whose memory is free from defilement. But it is not enough that each of us separately should have attained to this: it is further necessary that we should all be bound and united together by mutual “charity which is the bond of perfection ” (Col. iii. 14). As for perfect knowledge—the second solder*— that is not possible in this life, perhaps not even desirable. True, in our heavenly home such knowledge shall be the nourishment of love, but here it would rather be an

TEMPLE GOD REQUIRES US TO BUILD 399 impediment. For which of us can pretend that his heart is perfectly pure? Hence it might easily happen that intimate knowledge would lead to contempt on the part of him who knows and to embarrassment on the part of him who is known. There knowledge shali be all joyous where there shall be no evil to know. Consequently the parts of the heavenly house are most firmly fastened together, because it is destined to endure for ever; but the earthly, which is only as it were a warrior’s tent, is more loosely constructed. The latter, I say, is “ the city of our strength ” (Is. xxvi. 1); the former, the city of our rest. Therefore, if we are victorious in this, we shall be glorified in that, receiving a diadem in place of a helmet, a palm and a sceptre in place of a sword, a gold-embroidered mantle in place of a shield, and instead of a breast-plate a stole of joy. In the meantime it is better to suffer a little inconvenience than to perish, and to endure the weight of breast-plate and buckler than to expose oneself to be wounded with “the fiery darts of the most wicked one” (Ephes. vi. 16), from which may He guard us with His heavenly protection Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.