January 5, 2012

"That he might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Eph. V.27

"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house." I Peter ii.5

One holy Church of God appears

Through every age and race,

Unwasted by the lapse of years,

Unchanged by unchanging place.

--S. Longfellow

A temple there has been upon earth, a spiritual Temple, made up of living stones; a Temple, as I may say, composed of souls; a Temple with God for its light, and Christ for the high priest; with wings of angels for its arches, with saints and teachers for its pillars, and with worshippers for its pavement. Wherever there is faith and love, this Temple is.    -- J.H. Newman

To whatever worlds He carries our souls when they shall pass out of these imprisoning bodies, in those worlds these souls of ours shall find themselves part of the same great Temple; for it belongs not to this earth alone. There can be no end of the universe where God is, to which that growing Temple does not reach--the Temple of a creation to be wrought at last into a perfect utterance of God by a prefect obedience to God.   --Phillips Brooks