Holy place

“ God has looked down from the height of his sanctuary, from heaven, where he has prepared his throne, that high place, that holy place; thence did the Lord behold the earth, for it is a place of prospect, and nothing on this earth is or can be hidden from his all-seeing eye ”

“ It cannot be denied that the moment is opportune for an attempt to arrive at a solution of the question of the Holy Places. The most important external influences have disappeared for ever, and largely on this account, despite occasional setbacks, a new spirit of accom­modation is increasingly evident among the representatives of the various rites that live together in these sacred surroundings. ”

“ The place of our sanctuary implies access to the inaccessibly High, communion with the infinitely Separate, security and abode in God Himself. He that dwelleth in God dwelleth in peace. These, then, are the points of the prophet's vision of God. ”

“ The concerns of religion should lie nearer our hearts and affect us more than any worldly concern whatsoever. The desolation of God's house should grieve us more than the desolation of our own houses; for the matter is not great what becomes of us and our families in this world provided God's name may be sanctified, his kingdom may come, and his will be done.
1. The psalmist complains of the desolations of the sanctuary, as Daniel, ch. ix. 17. The temple at Jerusalem was the dwelling-place of God's name, and therefore the sanctuary, or holy place, v. ”

“ These four words, 'The Word became flesh,' are the foundation of all our knowledge of God, of man, of the relations between them, the foundation of all our hopes, the guarantee of all our peace, the pledge of all blessedness. 'He tabernacled among us.' As the divine glory of old dwelt between the cherubim, so Jesus is among men the true Temple, wherein we see a truer glory than that radiant light which filled the closed chamber of the holy of holies. ”

“ Go then to the Church, and bid thy vain thoughts and business of the world keep outside thereof: and at thine incoming, say to thy soul, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, and thou shalt hear His Voice, and behold His temple." Holy Church is the entrance and gate of Heaven. After, fall down before the Cross, and honour Him because He was slain on the Cross, and say "We adore Thee, O Christ, and bless Thee, because by Thy holy Cross Thou didst redeem the world." And then before thou uprisest, have in thy mind how hotly His love burned, That died for thee on the Cross. ”

“ Christ is our temple, and towards him we must look with an eye of faith, as Mediator between us and God, in all our praises of him. Heaven is God's holy temple, and thitherward we must lift up our eyes in all our addresses to God. ”

“ Lead me into the land of uprightness, into the communion of saints, that pleasant land of the upright, or into a settled course of holy living, which will lead to heaven, that land of uprightness where holiness will be in perfection, and he that is holy shall be holy still. We should desire to be led, and kept safe, to heaven, not only because it is a land of blessedness, but because it is a land of uprightness; it is the perfection of grace. ”

“ GRANT, we beseech Thee, almighty and merciful God, that Thy Holy Spirit may come to us, and make us to be a temple worthy of the habitation of His glory, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, God, world without end. ”

“ Oh, let us but, in true, true-hearted consecration, yield ourselves to be, as distinctly as was the tabernacle or the temple, given up entirely to be the dwelling of the Most High, the habitation of His Holiness. A house filled with the glory of God, a heart filled with all the fulness of God, is God’s promise, is our portion. ”

“ At the gates are angels—still ushering in the heirs of salvation and disdaining not to be porters to this glorious city. 3. Mark the foundations, garnished with all manner of precious stones—implying permanency. 4. Mark the circumstance that in the twelve foundations are inscribed the names of the twelve apostles—the whole being the result of their doctrine. [p. 75] 5. The whole city is a temple all filled with the presence and glory of God. No holiest of all is there where every part is most holy. All are filled, sanctified, beatified, by the fully manifested presence of God. He is all in all ”

“ He is the bread of life; in our Father's house there is bread enough and to spare; we may have fresh supplies from Christ, especially every Lord's day. This outer part is called the sanctuary or holy, because erected to the worship of a holy God, to represent a holy Jesus, and to entertain a holy people, for their further improvement in holiness. ”

“ Every Christian must delight in God’s sanctuary. It is to him, as a worshipper of God, “his place;”—the place where, at stated times, he ought to be, and where he chooses, and desires, and loves to be. ”

“ Let our cities become places of holiness: let holiness to the Lord be written upon the heart of every merchant, of every mechanic, of every statesman, of every counsellor, of every officer, upon every hall of legislation, and every splendid edifice; and an influence sweet, holy, and happy, shall go forth to revive the hearts of God's people, to awe and confound opposers, and to dress up the wilderness "like the garden of God." ”

“ And God’s promise shone forth from His house in the provision for making holy, in the sanctifying power of the altar, of the blood and the oil. The [p75] house embodied the two sides that are united in holiness, the repelling and the attracting, the condemning and the saving. Now by keeping the people at a distance, then by inviting and bringing them nigh, God’s house was the great symbol of His own Holiness. ”

“ The great point to be learned is that the Holiness of the home is to be as the Holiness of the Temple. The dedication which makes the bowls before the altar holy is also to sanctify the pots of the household, and the bells and trappings of the horses; the label which was written upon the priest's forehead, 'Holiness unto the Lord', is to be stamped upon the common things, in the street, in the shop, in the house—in fact, upon everything. ”

“ Now teach us effectually to reverence thy sanctuary: make us feel awful conceptions of the God with whom we have to do, and of the infinite importance of the holy exercises in which we are going to engage. Thou knowest our souls cleave to the very dust of the ground. O send thy quickening Spirit to raise our thoughts and desires up to thee in every part of thy holy worship. ”

“ From Port Said, before we go on eastward, I want you to see just a little of the Holy Land—the scene of the Bible. The Holy Land stands by itself, apart, and though it is in Asia it doesn't seem to belong to it. Someone once said that it is to the world what a church is to a town—the centre of religion. ”

“ How lovely is the sanctuary in the eyes of all that are truly sanctified! Gracious souls see a wonderful, an inexpressible, beauty in holiness, and in holy work. A tabernacle was a mean habitation, but the disadvantage of external circumstances makes holy ordinances not at all the less amiable; for the beauty of holiness is spiritual, and their glory is within. ”

“ Here upon the one rock—one foundation, which is Christ—in the one building or temple, in Christ, where all spiritual blessings are found, all the good, the pure and holy, may strike hands, unite, live in holy fellowship, while they continue in this world of sorrow and affliction, and after, be received up into glory, to dwell with their Lord and the holy society of the redeemed forever. ”

“ The kingdom of God, the temple of the Lord, were to be present, not in this or that place, but in every place where Christ himself is active in the Spirit, and where through him the worship of God in spirit and in truth is established. Every Christian in particular, and every church in general, were to represent a spiritual temple of the Lord; the true worship of God was to be only in the inward heart, and the whole life proceeding from such inward disposition, sanctified by faith, was to be a continued spiritual service ”

“ It is idle to deny that the place itself is favorable to meditation and to prayer. It makes a solemn stillness in the midst of a great city, as if we were in the solitude of a mountain or a desert. The pillared arches are like the arches of a sacred grove. Let those who will cast away such aids to devotion, and say they can worship God anywhere—in any place. ”

“ In the process of assimilation, slow but sure, by which the will of God, as the meat of our souls, is taken up into our inmost being, our spiritual nature is strengthened, is spiritualized, growing up into an holy temple in which God can reveal Himself and take up His abode. ”

“ In this order, man is made the holy temple of the Lord, where, through the good Spirit of God, internal worship is performed, in the exercise of faith, charity, hope, humility, patience, prayer, thanksgiving, and the praise of God. ”

“ The Church is called God’s holy Mountain—typified by Mount Sion, firmly settled in the eternal love, and everlasting purposes of Grace. Conspicuous and useful in the world, and which, as a great Mountain, shall fill the whole earth in the latter day. They are called a holy people; the Lord Jesus Christ is their holiness before God, Ye are compleat in him, who of God is made unto us Sanctification. Secondly, All their holiness is received from him, as the High Priest of their profession ”

“ The Communion of Saints." The pictures of the saints of the Old and the New Testament, of the angels who worship Christ our Saviour, and of the men blessed by Him when on earth, which shine for us in the windows, may help to give it reality in our thought. The four main walls of the church, which are supposed to represent the four Evangelists, and the pillars, "which, as the chief supports of the fabric, are said to represent the Apostles, prophets, and martyrs," may remind us also of the holy and glorious fellowship into which we have been brought. ”

“ And again—The Lord has ordained that all the most holy things pertaining to the salvation of the dead, and all the most holy conversations and correspondence with God, angels, and spirits, shall be had only in the sanctuary of His holy Temple on the earth, when prepared for that purpose by His Saints; and shall be received and administered by those who are ordained and sealed unto this power, to hold the keys of the sacred oracles of God. ”

“ We have here not only a glimpse into the manner of public worship in early times, but we may learn something of far more consequence for us, and find here a suggestion of what our homes ought to be. ‘The Church that is in thy house’—fathers and mothers that are responsible for your homes and their religious atmosphere, ask yourselves if any one would say that about your houses, and if they could not, why not? ”

“ For we rarely see, in this country of ours, any good and devout secular or religious man visiting the Mother City (most justly though it be accounted holy) , who returns home again in better holiness and devotion. ”

“ The home is the holy of holies where angels love to dwell. Its sacred precincts are more inviolate than the inner sanctuary of Israel’s temple. God has made it the ark of his covenant between himself and his children from generation to generation. ”

“ When we ask if the city is holy, we mean nothing about basilicas, or churches, or convents; but we mean, are the people like Jesus Christ, like a people prepared as a fit population for a sinless heaven? ”

“ Every such local church has Christ in the midst, is a temple of God, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 3:16,17. When perfected in organization a local church consists of "saints, with the bishops elders and deacons." ”

“ When we enter a church, the part which is the center of attention is always the sanctuary—the place of the Altar. To this the other parts all lead up. It is the most elevated part, and here the dignity and beauty of the decorations center, just as {31} all our life in the fellowship of Christ's Church here on earth, our cross-bearing, and the worship by which we are prepared and trained on earth and in Paradise, all lead us heavenward. ”

“ They must come together in the temple, the house of the Lord their God, because that was the house of prayer, and there they might be hope to meet with God because it was the place which he had chosen to put his name there, there they might hope to speed because it was a type of Christ and his mediation. ”

“ As the soul abides in the body of the man, so the Holy Ghost abides in the body of the Church. It is the sanctuary in which He dwells; the organ by which He speaks, so that the words of our Divine Lord are fulfilled to the very letter—"He that heareth you heareth me;" ”

“ V. The Church is to grow into a holy temple for God through the Spirit.—We must not content ourselves with having built on the true foundation, but must bring the structure to a more finished and beautiful condition. ”

“ The white circle of tents; the dim wood arches; the upturned, earnest faces; the loud voices of the speakers, burdened with the awful symbolic language of the Bible; the smoke from the fires, rising like incense,—carried me back to those days of primitive worship which tradition faintly whispers of, when on hill-tops and in the shade of old woods Religion had her first altars, with every man for her priest and the whole universe for her temple. ”

“ Of the revelation of His Holy and His Holy-making Presence, the centre is found in the person of the high priest, in his double capacity of representing God with man, and man with God. He is the embodiment of the Divine Holiness in human form, and of human holiness as a Divine gift, as far as the dispensation of symbol and shadow could offer and express it. ”