Ideal Church That Should Be Sermon Preached in Holy Trinity Cathedral By the Rev. F. A. Skinner at Evensong Feb. 11
Texr:—"A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but—holy and without blemish. Ephesians 527.
T the beginning of this month's Cathedral magazine you will find an article entitled "The marks of a living Church." Evidently it was a talk given over the Wireless recently, and it. is well worth reading.
Tt has suggested the subject I want us to think about tonight, which is, But perhaps you will say, that is the very antithesis of the text I have chosen. That is true. It will help us, first of all, to look at the ideal Church, the Church that should be, and which by God's grace shall be. God's ideal for His people is that they should possess perennial youth. They might grow old in time, but not in strength and vigour. For "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount us with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." So says Isaiah, and the conception of God's people as possessing abundant life is developed in the New testament, where in the Gospels we see them portrayed under the figures of a life-giving river and a fruit-bearing vine. But in the Epistles, and especially in this verse, we are given a picture of the corporate body of believers, which forms the ideal Chufch, arrayed and adorned as the Bride of Christ. The already age-old Church, is described as "glorious—not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;—holy, and without blemish."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.