pe safe to land'; and another shall
make the harbour with full cargo of works of faith, to be turned into
gold when he lands. If we build, as we all may, 'on that foundation,
gold and silver and precious stones,' an entrance 'shall be
ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ'; whilst if we bring a preponderance of
'wood, hay, stubble,' we shall be 'saved, yet so as through the
fire.'

TEMPLES OF GOD

'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?'--1 COR. iii. 16

The great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus Christ.
As He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the images of
the unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic in
attributing to Christ's followers likeness to Him, in nature, in
character, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimate
destiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed--Christs in Him.
Is He the Son of God? We in Him receive the adoption of sons. Is He
the Light of the world? We in Him are lights of the world too. Is He
a King? A Priest? He hath made us to be kings and priests.

Here we have the Apostle making the same solemn assertion in regard
to Christian men, 'Know ye not that ye are'--as your Master, and
because your Master is--'that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?'

Of course the allusion in my text is to the whole aggregate of
believers--what we call the Catholic Church, as being collectively
the habitation of God. But God cannot dwell in an aggregate of men,
unless He dwells in the individuals that compose the aggregate.
And God has nothing to do with institutions except through the people
who make the institutions. And so, if the Church as a whole is a
Temple, it is only because all its members are temples of God.

Therefore, without forgetting the great blessed lesson of the unity
of the Church which is taught in these words, I want rather to deal
with them in their individual application now; and to try and lay
upon your consciences, dear brethren, the solemn obligations and the
intense practical power which this Apostle associated with the
thought that each Christian man was, in very deed, a temple of God.

It would be very easy to say eloquent things about this text, but
that is no part of my purpose.

I. Let me deal, first of all, and only for a moment or two, with the
underlying thought that is here--that every Christian is a
dwe