“What a glory to have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit manifesting the Godhead in the midst of our assemblies, and blessing each one of us. For God to dwell with us: what a condescending presence this is!
And will God in very truth dwell among men? If the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, will he abide among his people? He will! He will! Glory be to his name!
“Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost?” God dwelleth in us. Wonderful word! Who can fathom the depth of this grace? The mystery of the incarnation is equalled by the mystery of the indwelling.
That God the Holy Ghost should dwell in our bodies is as extraordinary as that God the Son should inhabit that body which was born of the blessed virgin. Strange, strange is this, that the Creator should dwell in his creatures, that the Infinite should tabernacle in finite beings. Yet so it is; for he has said, “Certainly I will be with thee.”
What an awe this imparts to every true church of God! You may go in and out of certain assemblies, and you may say, “Here we have beauty! here we have adornment, musical, ecclesiastical, architectural, oratorical, and the like!” but to my mind there is no worship like that which proceeds from a man when he feels— the Lord is here.
What a hush comes over the soul! Here is the place for the bated breath, the unsandalled foot, and the prostrate spirit. Now are we on holy ground. When the Lord descends in the majesty of his infinite love to deal with the hearts of men, then it is with us as it was in Solomon’s temple when the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the glory that filled the place.
Man is set aside, for God is there. In such a case the most fluent think it better to be silent; for there is at times more expressiveness in absolute silence than in the fittest words. “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” For why? Because Jacob had said, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
We regard the lowliest assemblies of the most illiterate people with solemn reverence if God be there: we regard the largest assemblies of the wealthiest and most renowned with utter indifference if God be not there.
This is the one necessary of the church: the Lord God must be in the midst of her, or she is nothing. If God be there, peace will be within her walls, and prosperity within her palaces; but if the Lord be not there woe unto the men that speak in his name, for they shall cry in bitterness, “Who hath believed our report?”
Woe unto the waiting people, for they shall go away empty! Woe unto the sinners in a forsaken Zion, for them comes no salvation! The presence of God makes the Church to be a joyful, happy, solemn place: this brings glory to his name and peace to his people; but without it all faces are pale, all hearts are heavy.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Best War-Cry,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 29 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1883), 29: 135–136.
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