rist God dwelt completely, all 'the fulness
of the Godhead bodily' was there, but in us it is but partially; that
in Christ, therefore, the divine indwelling was uniform and
invariable, but in us it fluctuates, and sometimes is more intimate
and blessed, and sometimes He leaves the habitation when we leave
Him; that in Christ, therefore, there was no progress in the divine
indwelling, but that in us, if there be any true inhabitation of our
souls by God, that abiding will become more and more, until every
corner of our being is hallowed and filled with the searching
effulgence of the all-pervasive Light. And let us remember that God
dwelt in Christ, but that in us it is God in Christ who dwells. So to
Him we owe it all, that our poor hearts are made the dwelling-place
of God; or, as this Apostle puts it, in other words conveying the
same idea, 'Ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone; in whom
all the building fitly framed together groweth ... for a habitation
of God through the Spirit.'

II. Now then, turning from this underlying idea of the passage, let
us look, for a moment, at some of the many applications of which the
great thought is susceptible. I remark, then, in the second place,
that as temples all Christians are to be manifesters of God.

The meaning of the Temple as of all temples was, that there the
indwelling Deity should reveal Himself; and if it be true that we
Christian men and women are, in this deep and blessed reality of
which I have been speaking, the abiding places and habitations of
God, then it follows that we shall stand in the world as the great
means by which God is manifested and made known, and that in a
two-fold way; _to ourselves_ and _to other people_.

The real revelation of God to our hearts must be His abiding in our
hearts. We do not learn God until we possess God. He must fill our
souls before we know His sweetness. The answer that our Lord made to
one of His disciples is full of the deepest truth. 'How is it,' said
one of them in his blundering way, 'how is it that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself to us?' And the answer was, 'We will come and make Our abode
with him.' You do not know God until, if I might so say, He sits at
your fireside and talks with you in your hearts. Just as some wife
may have a husband whom the world knows as hero, or sage, or orator,
but she knows him as nobody else can; so the outside, and