So thoroughly corrupt are the springs of human thought, that every true knowledge of God must reach and abide in the soul as a revelation. It is not a conception; it is light-the disclosure and teaching of the life of Him who is the light of men. The word of Scripture does not of itself impart this, for then every thinker of it would be enlightened; whereas it is a fact, that reason brought to bear on Scripture always leads to error and confusion. The spiritual man reads the Word which measures his thoughts; for the Word is God's limit of revelation. Anything more or less is not divine; because, though reason is not light, it is, in the pride of nature, always seeking to rank as such; and it is ever ready to take up even a position, obtained by the Spirit, which does not own it but as a servant; and here always the spiritual man needs holy discipline. The abundance of revelations, though of God, did not make Paul a less vain man. Nay, from the fact of being thus gifted, he required a buffeting-a depreciation of nature equivalent to the exaltation through grace. Seek the one, be prepared for the other. Nothing so marks the constitutional debility of the household of faith, as how few truths, compared with the many professed to be known, are held by them in all the vigor and influence of light; " light is that which cloth make manifest;" light is the fruit of life, and declares that which produces it; so that there is constitutional strength with intelligence of its value and use. This imbecility is marked now, as in Israel. That the conscience may lose its sensibility long before the mere man loses the habit which the conscience had once led him to conform to. " They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, and. their heart goeth after their covetousness." The most important truths (alas, how the soul feels it!) are often nothing more than " a very lovely song," pleased with the enunciation of a new truth as a problem of science. The conscience keeps aloof from the severe and holy demands of the Word of God; consequently the blessing of being a doer of the Word is little known-and, what is still more sad, the most important truths are spoken of with a lightness and flippancy, which show what little grasp they have of the conscience-for when the conscience is acted on, the painful consciousness of imperfectness only finds relief where light finds its source and the soul its Savior; hence, he who is doing truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God, and then, plainer than any place else, he learns that " the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
In heading this paper with "THE HABITATION OF GOD," I cannot divest myself of the feeling, that this tritely acknowledged truth has little or no hold of our consciences. It is spoken of-it is admitted-nay, even wondered at-but does the great responsibility which such undeserved dignity imposes sensibly engage our souls? Do we contemplate in all its wondrous import that word, " I will dwell with them." The heart goeth after covetousness, that is, seeking something instead of God; and, consequently, the wonderful springs. from which God would refresh the soul passing through this wilderness, are unheeded and untasted. God made man for Himself. Man may doubt-may refuse the glory-but God, in His blessed grace, is not diverted by either from the fulfillment of His purpose. This purpose, declared for a moment in the garden of Eden, when God, in the cool of the day (marvelous to behold!), sought association with the first man Adam, has never been surrendered on the part of God. True, Adam shrank from it (sin made him), and his children have been ever ready, wantonly and wickedly, to refuse it. Nevertheless, it is the purpose of God, and, opposition surmounted, only adds greater glory to the ovation. Man, in every dispensation hitherto, has retained this natural dread of the presence of God; and this fear is used of the enemy to encourage avoidance of what would excite it-yet God has never failed to present Himself to the man who was ready to hear and obey His counsels; nay, He has never set him, the execution of His counsel or testimony, that He has not presented Himself at once to confirm and co-operate with him. Before the seventh from Adam fell under stern rule which reigned from Adam to Moses, God arrests its fatal course-and Enoch walked with God three hundred years. As soon as Abram declared his full separation from Syria, and committed himself without reserve to the hand of God to guide and succor him in an unknown territory, the Lord appeared to him; and it is edifying to study the occasions on which the Lord displays this readiness of His to be on personal intimacy with him. To Isaac, after the forced separation from Gerar only, after conflict, abandoned-the reward and solace were, " the Lord appeared to him that night." I cite these instances in the earlier history of God's people to show, that though man had passed from the place where God could meet him without remorse, and though the time had not come when the breach was repaired, yet God discloses the desire of his heart, even livingly and personally, to connect Himself with His people.
A fuller example of this we get in the manifestation to Moses in the burning bush. There is shown that the God of glory can dwell in the midst of what He could in a moment consume, and which He does not consume; that His mercy is as great as His power. Israel should learn to value His presence. That though He was consumable, and worthy to be consumed, yet the God of glory would come to their rescue and deliverance; consequently, when the deliverance is effected, and that the many witnesses of the achievement stand on the Canaan side of the Red Sea-what is among the •first notes of the triumphal song? " He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation 1" The soul had learned the blessing of Him who dwelt in the bush; and now it ascends to the desire which is always in him who has known in truth the salvation of God, even that He might dwell with him; but this is also God's purpose; and hence, further on in this song we read, " Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in." And again, " Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto thy holy habitation." Thus man in the ecstasies of salvation has common thought with God. God and he desire to dwell together. How much Israel departed from this sentiment afterward, does not derogate from the blessedness and the purpose of him who is exulting in the grace and mercy of God. When law and assertion of competency to fulfill it came in, the spring of grace is closed and the song forgotten?
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel are introduced for a moment into that wondrous presence, which a little while ago, all Israel in the fullness of their heart, desired an habitation for amongst themselves. Alas! in proportion as we lose a sense of what God is for us, do we lose perception or desire of His glory. The better we know His grace the better will we seek His glory. The tabernacle revealed heaven in a figure only open to the priests-God had His place there, but the high priest alone could enter it; still, though heaven in a figure translated to earth, yet it was amongst men, and God dwelt there; not surely as if He had found a resting-place on earth, but until then He sets His pavilion here with heavenly dignities. Thus the tabernacle never fulfilled the purpose of God as His " Holy habitation." It bore God in heavenly order among His people on earth, till that spot was reached, when the ransom being paid, the sin removed, the Holy God could set up His dwelling-place among men. This it was that David, " the man after God's own heart," desired to find, and for which he is told, " It was well that it was in thine heart." Many and glorious were the achievements of David; yet a commendation of none of them is recorded, but the desire to build God a house. This is distinguished as paramount to all His other services. May our souls appreciate the moral!
At length the time came-" Solomon built Him a house" on that spot where Abraham learned to estimate how God loved the world when he offered up His son-where David was taught that mercy rejoiceth over judgment-where the spotless Lamb of God should flow and take away the sin of the world, there are laid the foundations of that house which was to be God's habitation. True, it was after all but a shadow of that which was to come-of that temple of which it could be said, " Destroy this temple and in three days will I raise it up." But if such dignity and virtue were attached to the type, how much and how great to the antitype? Who can read Solomon's dedication of that temple and not be filled with wonder and praise at the blessings stored up in that house for every soul in almost any shade, difficulty or distance, who would cast the eye of faith upon it. Surely not because it was a gorgeous edifice, but simply because it was the habitation of God. Daniel in Babylon-Jonah in the whale's belly-knew what it was to set their eye, the eye of faith, on that temple. May we echo, We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple." God, if we may so say, had only obtained an installment in the temple at Jerusalem of that purpose which is incomprehensible to us because of the magnitude of its mercy and blessing, even that He should dwell with us. And yet can we read down the page of Israel's history, and not be warned while we admire the jealousy with which they cared for that house. Seventy long years of bitter captivity did not eradicate their love for a temple built with hands. Nay, when their power was gone, never to return, having lapsed into the hands of the Gentiles, the undying zeal for the house of the Lord was still to be the harbinger of every blessing, as Haggai admonishes them. How it stirs the soul to see Israel, after the flesh, go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house of the Lord, which one day Antiochus should profane I Nothing so marks the fidelity of our soul's attachment to God-and a great spring in it-as our care for His house. Jesus began His ministry in Israel with this motto, " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up," and he ends it faithful to the same. The widow gave up all her living for the repairs of the temple. The Lord of glory gave His life because " the zeal of thine house hath eaten Him up"-and He that was greater than Solomon would build an enduring house.
From Adam's fall till Jesus stood in the waters of Jordan, God did not abide with man in all the nearness which His heart desired. There, and then, the Holy Ghost, in a bodily shape, like a dove descending from heaven, abode upon the man Christ Jesus. The breach between man and God was now repaired, not on the frail basis of a creature, however innocent and good as Adam once was, but on the foundation of the beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased. Here God now dwelt; and if even wicked hands should destroy this temple, He would raise IT up again in three days. No purpose or act of wickedness must any longer frustrate the desire of God. The zeal of God's house is now the service of the Son of God. Man, in fatal madness, may reject, and cast out, and crucify the Son, who from the bosom of the Father has come forth to link forever God and His glory with the human family-all who will accept of it. The Son will not succumb, or retire from His mission by any power or malice leveled against Him. From death, the stronghold of power, He rises at once pre-eminently powerful and persevering to fulfill all the counsel of God. The greatness of the power He exercised here in person is only exceeded on His departure. "Greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father."
Malice against God in the gratification of its passion, only calls forth more of the power of God, though the Son of God is rejected as the true resting-place of God upon earth. Yet earth is not abandoned. The link now established in the Son will be maintained by the Holy Ghost in that body, the Bride of Christ, which He now is building from the life of Christ, as Eve from the rib of Adam, to be presented ere long as God's gift from a world which rejected Him. In this body the Holy Ghost will always abide-not as in former times-the glory came and the glory went. He now is to abide ever, for the link is established on the everlasting foundations of the Son of God; and He, though in heaven, is the Head of the body, the Church, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all-the Church was thus to be a marvelous display of the grace of God-composed of materials once dead, in trespasses and sin rebels against God, crucifiers of His Son, yet now, quickened by the Spirit of the rejected but forgiving one, are builded together for a habitation for God through " the Spirit." Can our souls measure this wondrous elevation? Is it not amazing to be a forgiven sinner, accepted in the beloved? But to be a component of that structure of which Christ is the Head, and in which God DWELLS! O how little do we understand 1 in the selfishness of our hearts Christianity is limited to our own necessities, and blessed be God these are not overlooked; but yet it has a wider scope, and he who knows most of God's grace, will, as I have said before, yearn most after God's glory. It is, at least, but a just requital; and when the Lord has quieted every fear, and the banner of peace is unfurled, He does expect us to glorify His Father. An individual may glorify the Father; but the Holy Ghost is on a service as Abraham's steward in Syria. And any one in fellowship with Him will not limit God's glory to a unit; but understand, that we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body. His spiritual tendencies will be always congregational with them for whom the Spirit has affinity. For the body is not one member, but many; and we are " blinded together for an habitation of God." It is not the question whether it is more for our blessing that we should show ourselves as of the habitation of God, but it is plainly our duty-it is the service required of us. Paul writes various instructions to Timothy, not on the ground of promoting his own blessing, but as his duty, that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God-the. pillar and the ground of truth. It is something most solemn for a man to contemplate that he is of the house of God; and hence should be with him an anxious study how there to carry himself, for " holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever."
We never will get proper ideas of our responsibility till we understand. something of the dignity imposed on us. Corinth could be a Church coming behind in no gift, and yet it was needful to exhort them, that, as they were the temple of the living God, they should be separate and touch not the unclean thing, or God would not receive them. However hitherto decorated by the gifts of God, if defilement was overlooked, God's presence as a Father would be overthrown. The joy, the fullness of joy, the fellowship of the Father and the Son, which the Son would realize in His body, was to be lost. Alas! how often has it been forfeited by many a goodly company of believers. " The temple of God is holy" we do well to remember; because otherwise we shall have no principle to guide us in the ordering of that house, either how we are to work together with God-or how to avoid building on the foundation, wood, hay, or stubble; and it behooves us personally, for God is careful of His house, and if we defile the temple of God, so likewise will He do to us. Grace accepts us, and ever keeps us; but we serve a righteous God who loveth righteousness, and will render to every man according to his work.
These warnings to Corinth were not always attended to; and hence, ere long, the beautiful structure of the house of God loses the characteristics of the Church of the living God-the pillar and the ground of truth; and in its place there is the great house in which vessels to honor and dishonor are promiscuously collected together. Proper carefulness as to the principles which ought to guide the fellow-workers with God, would have prevented this ostensibly great, but intrinsically paralyzed, condition of the house of God. We see the first seeds of this carelessness in 1 Cor. 5 Wickedness glossed over such as would not be named among the Gentiles, and because of the discovery of such carelessness, classes of persons are specially notified as unfit for the church of God. Spiritual discernment, became so ineffective, that on record must be placed a list of cases to help to right the church discipline. True, in this case Corinth righted itself-repented, and was clear in the matter; but what if they had not? Surely God would not dwell amongst them. Need I prove that though a highly endowed church, it was declared that God was not among them, for levity, disorder, and leaven were in their assembly; but they repented, and all was right again. The house of God degenerates into a great human edifice; but God's vessels are never without rallying power, for the Holy Ghost abides, and to the last we are to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; we can ever call on the beloved to build themselves up in their most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, but with our eyes opened to see (as we are taught by Jude), the fearful association we have been involved in. But again, how came all this to pass? Was there watching in all things when ungodly men crept in unawares? Watch was the duty of all, the duty of the fellow-workers with the porter. But watching was soon given up, and the church was puffed up, and not rather mourning because of inherent disorder and evil. Puffed up by God's gifts and blessings, it forgot that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, and that when once God deserted them, all the fair proportions would sink into a mass of confusion and jargon. And so has the church ostensibly! But the Holy Ghost still abides; there is still an opposing force to the manifestation of anti-Christ. To the last and worst state, even to an individual, it is, I stand at the door and knock, if any man open to me I will come and sup with him, and he with me. Let us be ever so refractory and failing, the Holy Ghost will not surrender his service; He is still the same, bent on the construction of a holy temple in the Lord, and building together the members of Christ now for a habitation of God. Faithful souls now, as Israel on the Canaan side of the Red Sea, will desire a habitation for God: like the man after God's own heart, they will seek a tabernacle for God. Like the Spirit of Him from whom all the body by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, maketh the increase of God.
The zeal of thine house," will deeply and solemnly interest them. Widowed and desolate, one act will command all their living-the last link with creature existence will be strained in the service of the house of God. The power of Darkness and his angels had raised the storm to its height against the Lord of glory, and concentrated his lieges with resistless fury against Him; yet was a shadow of a rock in a weary land, and a covert from the tempest. Bethany was His retreat. Two or three there could lodge and tabernacle the Beloved of the Father. And there (see John 12), the grand characteristics of the house and church of God find among so few a faithful expression. Thus in early dawn, in the infancy of the church are exhibited the simple and glorious dignities of the house of God. The ark of His presence destined to brave all troubled waters, until that moment when the church will pass from this scene and take its place in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (all historically announced in this chapter).
The shadow of a great rock in a weary land will ever remain-the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. There will be always a Bethany, from which our Lord ascended till he returns again. When the two thousand cubits or sabbath day's journey shall be traveled by Israel, the ark of the covenant in the hands of priests having already opened a fair and safe transit from every wilderness sorrow, into the land of rest. Two thoughts ought to deeply engage our souls. Do our hearts desire God to dwell with us? Do we know the immensity which such a desire involves? See how David prepared, and what sacrifices he endured, even to prepare a habitation for God. Do our souls measure at all the gloriousness of the presence of God amongst us? And secondly, so we set ourselves to be rightly instructed in the proper ordering of His house? Do we practically conform in all our ways, irrespective even of all our living, or all living people?-the only terms on which He will consent to dwell with us. If first, we desire His dwelling with us, a purpose so dear, so determined on by Him, are we prepared, not only at all sacrifices to effect it, but also in the undeviating maintenance of that holiness which becometh His house-to come out and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing. No thought higher in the soul than the presence of God. Nothing to be regarded or spared that would grieve or hinder it. If God's presence was once known well, we could not make so light of losing it. Souls speak of communion with their brethren, and then allow themselves to be seduced from the only communion which can give value to any other. If we say we have fellowship, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with God, and also with one another, so that the fellowship with one another only flows with our fellowships with God; but with God we have no fellowship if we walk in darkness. Be not deceived, much church duty and observance may go on without communion with god or the knowledge of God's presence. Corinth was an example of this, Israel in the days of Christ were still a more fearful example.
Brethren, repent, and let your care for the church of God exceed every other. It is God's sanctuary, while two or three remain; care for the nucleus of the body more than for the one who has done wrong, or the one who has suffered wrong; your eye only resting where Christ's heart rests—and only caring how and by what means you may habitate the presence of God where He desires. Be a David in desire, and a Solomon in accomplishment. Amen.