THE word "church" is a very common one to-day, and yet many fail to realize the significance of the institution. As we try to form a conception of the church, we are prone to see only the visible, the exterior, or that which we consider as material.
As we pause to consider the body, the church, let us recall the words of the Saviour as He visits Jerusalem in company with the disciples. They invite His attention to the temple. He beholds, yet points the disciples to that time when "not one stone shall be left upon another." Inspiration declares a time when "heaven and earth shall pass away." John, on the lone rock of Patmos, beholds "a new heaven and a new earth;" he beholds that holy city, adorned as a bride for her husband; and altho his eyes are dimmed with age, from barren Patmos he views the green fields of a new earth. He thirsts,—but from that lonely isle he sees a river, the waters whereof shall make glad the redeemed. He longs to hear once more the sweet songs of Zion, but a far grander and more glorious strain salutes his ear; it is the song of Moses and the Lamb. He sees the redeemed there from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; but behold, there is no temple there. When this old earth shall stand trembling in chaos; when darkness shall again rest over the great deep, and the heavens be rolled back as a scroll, the church—the company of triumphant believers—shall still exist; it shall stand before the throne of God.
Many years ago it started from Eden's gateway for a land where the thistle and thorn will not grow. Babylon, that fair city, attracted its attention, inviting it to stay. It could not remain, for it had started for a city "whose builder and maker was God." It has passed the Red Sea of affliction. Its head has been wounded and bruised. The fair lilies of Olive's brow have been watered with tears; the cruel cross has been carried to Calvary's summit; blood, precious blood, has trickled down upon that mountainside; the grave-clothes are in the tomb, but the wearer is at the right hand of God. While now we pass through the tomb, we shall soon follow our glorious Head to the right hand of God the Father. Still the world may invite us, but we see "a land, a better land than this," a land where sin can never come, for—
"All who reach that heavenly land
Will be as angels are."