"Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God." So says one of our old hymns.^a But more glorious and wonderful things than ever were said about Zion are in God's word spoken of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church is not much accounted of in the world today, and even among religious people it is not too highly esteemed. The emphasis is placed on personal and individual salvation--and certainly too much emphasis could not be given to that. But in emphasizing one side of the truth, the other side is often lost sight of. "The church will not save you," is a slogan often heard; which is quite true, if rightly understood. But the impression is left that the church is of small moment and of no special importance, and is in no wise connected with our salvation. And that is not true. As for the world's estimate of the church, we need not wonder. The world neither knows the Lord nor does it know what the church is, nor its purpose and mission in the world. It seems often to be thought of as a club of good people (or of people who pretend to be good, but are not always good); or as a sort of benevolent society, or social service organization, that is (or should be) engaged in all sorts of philanthropic or political enterprises for the betterment of the world and the general uplift of humanity. The world's low estimate of the church may also be partly due to present day conditions in Christendom. It is an easy solution of a complicated problem, to sweep the whole thing aside as of little consequence. The claims of the multiplicity of sects and denominations, ancient and modern, is to say the least, somewhat confusing, and an inquirer would hardly get any clear idea of the New Testament Church out of that situation. And so it happens that the church is little set by, and the true teaching of God's word concerning the church is little known or understood.

      It is a vast subject, and in this present article I can only point out a few outstanding facts concerning the church. The word, in the original, is "ekklesia," a word in common use at the time, and designating an "assembly"--a called assembly, as the meaning of the word would indicate. As in many other cases, God selected an ordinary word, but gave it a new and richer content and meaning. His "assembly" is the number of His elect, His redeemed ones, called out of the world through the gospel, and united by vital bonds one with another and with Jesus Christ their Lord. It is not an institution of the world, for it is not of the world even as He is not of the world; yet it is in the world and that for a purpose. The church is represented in the New Testament in various aspects, of which I select three outstanding ones. [35]

      1. The Church is the House of God. "The church of God, which is the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). It is called the house of God because He is the Builder and the sole Owner of it, and also dwells in it. In the Old Testament dispensation God dwelt in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple which Solomon built, though not in the full sense of that word; for "God dwelleth not in temples made with hands" a fact which was even at that time well understood. The temple of Solomon was the most magnificent and the costliest building ever erected on the earth. The materials were of the most precious, and every stone and every piece of timber were cut to measure in forest and quarry; and the house went up without sound of saw or hammer.

      When finally the building stood complete, Solomon offered the great prayer of dedication; and when he had finished praying the glory of the Lord came down and filled the house. Then and thenceforth it was the House of God. But this new house of God, the church, is built of rarer and costlier material and for which a price far exceeding the fabulous sum of the cost of Solomon's temple was paid. It is a spiritual house built up of living stones built upon God's own Foundation (for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 3:11) and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God," says Paul to the church in Corinth, "and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy and such are ye" (1 Cor. 3:16, 17). For this temple He paid a staggering price--nothing less than the blood of Christ; for it is "the church of the Lord, which he purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). Nothing in all the universe of God ever cost so much nor could anything else cost so much again. Clearly then we cannot rate the church as an unimportant thing. And like the temple of old, the church, when it is what God wants it to be, is the pivot and center of God's work in the earth, the point of contact between God and man.

      2. The Church is the Body of Christ. "He is the head of the body, the Church" (Col. 1:18). God "put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22, 23). This is a greater and more wonderful conception than even that of the temple. The Head and the Body constitute a living whole, not only an organization but an organism. To Him who sits on the right hand of God far above all principality and power and every name that is named, the humble church is united by a vital bond, even as [36] a man's body is joined to his head sharing the same life and the same Spirit which animates both head and body; and whatever affects the body affects the head--yea, chiefly affects the head. Saul had the first intimation of that on the road to Damascus, when the Lord of glory spoke from heaven and said to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" and "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." The persecuting of the church of God was felt by the Head in heaven, as a thing done unto Him; nor can any good or ill be done to Christ's church without doing it to the Lord Jesus Christ. As His body, the church is His instrumentality for doing His work in the earth. The work He would do, the work He wants done in the world He must do through the church, and can do through the church alone.

      3. The Church is the Bride, of Christ. Among the Jews, matrimony had two distinct phases: (1) the betrothal, which was far more than the "engagement" signifies among us: it was in fact a preliminary marriage. Thus Mary, though only betrothed to Joseph, is called "his wife"--"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife." The church, though as yet imperfect, is already bound to Jesus Christ as His betrothed. "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy," wrote Paul to the church at Corinth--"for I espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). In a great passage, Eph. 5:22, 23, the apostle commingles the thought of the body and the bride in one picture--seeing that the two are in wedlock "one flesh." Here he states that "the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself also the savior of the body." Again, "Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church"; and "Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church."

      As the bride of Christ, the church's paramount trust is that she be true and loyal to her husband. The friendship of the world is spiritual adultery, James tells us (Jas. 4:4). The true church which holds by her Lord in this world cannot expect to be loved by the world that hated Him and cast Him out. She is called to share His reproach and rejection. As He is, so is she in the world. Inasmuch as "He suffered without the gate," it is her lot also to "go forth unto him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For we, have not here an abiding city, [37] but we seek after the city which is to come" (Heb. 13:12-14). If then He was despised and rejected of men, His church can never expect great things in the world. It is "through many tribulations" that she must enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22.) All the teaching and exhortation directed to the church in the New Testament, envisions her as a poor, weak, suffering church; and never as glorious, triumphant and powerful. The day of her glory is future. It is tied up with the return of Christ. "When Christ who is our life shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory" (Col. 3:4). And "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed to usward" (Rom. 8:18). So, the bride waits daily for the coming of the Bridegroom, and her hope is set on Him. In that day He will "present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing," but as "holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Forever with the Lord! John heard a great chorus of joy in heaven, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, "Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:6, 7). That is the celebration of the heavenly nuptials, when the perfected church is joined in unbreakable wedlock to Him and to be with Him for ever, evermore.

      Surely the church is something different and infinitely greater than men know and to be in it and of it is as high a privilege as man can have. It seems indeed as if the great enemy had gone to special lengths to corrupt and misrepresent and degrade the church in the eyes of men. But Christ is over all and in His own time He will bring the hidden things to light, and show His finished work. Meanwhile His saints find comfort and strength for the way in His sure word of truth and anticipate their morning of joy. True indeed are the beautiful words of our hymn:

[SSS 35-39]