Bride of Christ

Meanwhile I was very happy at Kemsing.

It was quite possible, so long as one resolutely focused one's eyes to the proper objects, to believe that the Church of England was what she claimed to be, the spiritual mother of the English and a member of the Bride of Christ.

I made several friends whom, I am thankful to say, I retain to this day.

I began to take pains with preaching.

In all I found twenty-nine passages of Scripture, since then I have found a few more, in which the Petrine prerogative is at any rate implied, and I found not one contrary to or incompatible with its commission.

I published these in a small pamphlet soon after my submission.

it is of course utterly impossible to lay my finger upon this or that argument as the one that finally convinced me besides it was not argument that did convince me any more than it was emotion that impelled me it was rather my being drawn by the spirit of god towards a vantage-ground whence i could look out and see the facts as they were but it was newman's book that pointed me to the facts led my eye from this point to that and showed me how the whole glorious erection stood upon the unshakable foundation of the gospel and soared to heaven There, then, to change the metaphor, I saw the mystical bride of Christ, growing through the ages from the state of childhood to adolescence, increasing in wisdom and stature, not adding to, but developing her knowledge, strengthening her limbs, stretching out her hands, changing indeed her aspect and her language, using now this set of human terms, now that, to express better and better her mind— bringing out of her treasures things new and old, which yet had been hers from the beginning, indwelt by the spirit of her spouse, and even suffering as he had done.

She too was betrayed and crucified, dying daily like her great lord, denied, mocked and despised, a child of sorrows and acquainted with grief, misrepresented, misconstrued, agonizing.

He said it will come down adorned like a bride for the bridegroom.

Why? Because it will house the bride of Christ.

All of us who love the Lord Jesus Christ, all of us have received him as Savior and Lord.

We are the bride of Christ.

And we will be in that new Jerusalem.

Now this is a picture of a Jewish wedding.

Uh, J- Jesus prayed passionately in John 17.

He says to the Father, "I have sanctified Myself so that they," speaking first about the disciples and then speaking about us in general, the, the bride of Christ, "so that they may be sanctified, set apart."

Mm-hmm.

So that's a, that's a serious thing that we as His followers should look at and, and not just take it lightly.

But I, I go back to- ...

the topic of being set apart.

I'm not saying that as a ne- necessary- necessarily an accusation on the whole, you know, Bride of Christ.

Mm-hmm.

He said it will come down adorned like a bride for the bridegroom.

Why? Because it will house the bride of Christ.

All of us who love the Lord Jesus Christ, all of us have received him as Savior and Lord.

We are the bride of Christ.

And we will be in that new Jerusalem.

Now this is a picture of a Jewish wedding.

If for no other reason, it's worth holding on to this ancient Israelite love poetry just to provide the final dispensation with a metaphor worth holding on to.

And that we, as the bride of Christ, whom he loves and for whom he gave his life, can we prepare for that wedding day by becoming a little bit more fair and living according to light that's a little more clear and becoming a far more awe-inspiring army of Israel ready to prepare the earth for the coming of her king? I am grateful for the Song of Solomon, at least what it gives us there.

And it's worth becoming that.

My friends, we can find beauty and goodness and truth everywhere we look if we have the eyes to see.