by our Saviour, "when neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall men worship the Father; but when the true worshippers shall worship Him in spirit and in truth." To no edifice in all Christendom-church, or chapel, or cathedral -does the honour belong of being God's dwelling-place. The worshippers of God, and not the walls which enclose them, are now His holy and beautiful house.

Yet a Christian sanctuary, though not God's house, but only a house of worship and instruction for God's people, has just claims, no less than the temple of Solomon, to the epithets in the text. A Christian sanctuary has its own characteristic sacredness-its own distinctive beauty. Nay, it possesses, or at least may possess, no fewer than three elements of holy beauty. And so precious, moreover, are these elements, that wherever they all meet in the same edifice, they irradiate that edifice with a nimbus of glory, fairer even and more resplendent than that of the ancient Hebrew temple.

I. The first of the three elements which make a Christian place of worship holy and beautiful is -The spiritual end to which it is appropriated.

For what end do you come to the Christian sanctuary? Is it merely to perform certain prescribed rites? Is it merely to sing psalms, to offer

prayer, to hear the word, to celebrate the sacraments? Is the purpose of your coming answered, if you but go through these outward services "decently, and in order"? Some persons seem to think so. Some persons seem to think that the mere observance of religious ordinances is religion, or at least that ordinances, when administered in due form and by properly authorised functionaries, possess a certain virtue or efficacy of their own, irrespective of the moral agency of the worshippers. But how fallacious is such a notion! Church ordinances, so far from operating as a charm, can do nothing for you, apart from your own free choice and co-operation. It is not by any magical action of theirs, but only through the voluntary action of your own mind, that they can benefit you. Psalms, prayers, sermons, sacraments, can promote your spiritual welfare only by calling into play your own mental powers, and inciting you to think, and feel, and resolve. They are a means, not an end. They but furnish instruction and incentive. They cannot move and influence you apart from your own concurrent efforts. They are valuable only so far as they help you to become intelligent, devout, disinterested, morally strong, personally holy.

The grand end, then, of a Christian sanctuary and its ordinances is, that the worshipper may be trained to inward holiness. And surely, if any

end can consecrate and beautify an edifice, it is this. What nobler end, indeed, can be conceived than that of freeing the human soul from sin, and forming it to holiness? A boon it might be to you, to place you beyond the reach of pain and sorrow; a boon it might be to you, to raise you to worldly wealth, and power, and honour;-but how poor such boons compared with that of lifting you out of the mire of sin, and placing you on the heights of holiness! In truth, there is not in the whole universe, crowded though it be with the grand and the beautiful, anything so sublimely grand, so "beautiful exceedingly," as holiness. This constitutes the very splendour of the divine nature, and must therefore be the highest glory of man. Wealth is poor, compared with this; worldly honour is mean, compared with this; crowns and sceptres are baubles, compared with this. In the absence of this, the consecrated church, the surpliced priest, the chanted litany, the pealing organ, are but idle pageantry and parade. Anything better than inward holiness-anything richer, lovelier, nobler, more divine-it is impossible for man to attain, or even for God Himself to impart.

II. The second thing which hallows and beautifies a Christian sanctuary is-The personal devotedness of the minister.

The same superstitious turn of mind which

inclines so many persons to believe in the occult power of church ordinances, disposes them to attach a sort of religious virtue to the ministerial office. They assume that the Christian minister belongs to a sacerdotal caste; and if they are but certified of what they call the validity of his orders or ordination, they conclude that the word and sacraments, by him administered, must be efficacious, whatever be his personal character. But just as church ordinances are of no spiritual effect apart from the moral agency of the worshippers, so the ministerial office is powerless for good apart from the personal gifts and graces of the minister. A Christian minister, be it remembered, is not, like the ancient Jewish priest, a vicarious functionary authorised to mediate between God and man: neither is he, like an apostle of Christ, an inspired teacher, whose every word bears the stamp and weight of a divine oracle. He holds no direct commission from Christ; and he has no right to speak with authority. His only means of knowing God's will is the study of the Bible-a book as open to other men as to him; and no other help has he from above to assist him in interpreting the Sacred Book than every true Christian enjoys, for the promise of the Holy Spirit is made to the people as much as to the pastor. It is not, then, in virtue of his mere office that the Christian minister can be a

holy beauty to the sanctuary, for his office is simply that of an uninspired teacher; nor yet is it in virtue of his ordination, for his ordination is but an outward act performed by human hands, and all that it conveys to him is the sanction of his own particular Church to his exercise of the ministry. It is only by his personal gifts and graces that he can fulfil the ends of his sacred function: it is only by his personal piety and devotedness that he can do Christ's work. And really, after all-provided he does perform Christ's work-provided he does win souls to Christ-provided he does turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and build up the saints in holiness and comfort,-what matters it from which of the Churches he has received his commission, or with what sort of ceremony he has been ordained? You go to church, to be acted on, not by the pomp and circumstance of outward forms, but by the mind and voice of a living minister; you go "to be convinced of what is true, and warmed with the love of what is good." And if the minister does convince and warm you-if he does reach your understanding and rouse your conscience if he does cause your heart to burn within you, while he opens to you the Scriptures-if he does bring you to be more afraid of sin than before, and more solicitous about salvation, and more alive to Christ's