Christ In Us (5)

(8) Where the Spirit is, there is often prayer, as Christ often prayed. There is also a perpetual endeavour of doing good, as his Spirit in him stirred him to go from place to place to do good. Where his Spirit is, there is holiness. If we consider what a sweet guest Christ is, where he is there is all beauty, work, comfort, strength, and all. Where he is, he is forever. He never forsakes his lodging; he never forsakes his house and temple. He had two temples built with stone, one by Solomon and the other after the captivity. Both lie now in the rubbish and are demolished. But his spiritual temples he never leaves; for whose souls he now dwells in, he will take them by the Spirit and carry them to heaven, to be where he is.
I beseech you, therefore, test yourself. Examine what spirit is in you. If we find the Spirit of Christ to be in us, what a comfortable state that is! He is the best guest that ever we could entertain in this world, for he does to the soul what the soul does to the body. What does the soul to the body? From where has the body the beauty that it has? From where does all that is excellent, good, and useful come? From the soul--the reasonable, understanding soul. For as soon as the soul is out of the body, the body is an ugly, deformed thing, a dead creature. Now, as the soul is to the body, so is Christ to the soul. For he gives beauty and loveliness to it. He transforms it to his own likeness and image, that it may be the object of God's love; that he may love us, not only because we are in his Son, but because his Son's image is in us. We have not only beauty from Christ dwelling in us, but where he is, he works and stirs us to all holy and heavenly duties. If Christ be in us, we may comfort ourselves.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Matchless Love and Inbeing, Works, vol. 6, p. 406
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