We must bear in mind that this spiritual temple is not new in its material parts. It is an old, ruined, dilapidated temple, rebuilt, repaired, cleansed, and reinhabited. The devil, who before held it, has been banished. The Holy Ghost has taken possession, and set it apart for God. Yet some vestiges of its old state linger here and there for a time; the divine Architect has not yet finished it. When it is done, it will be pure as heaven, and shine in the beauty of holiness for ever and ever. The work is going on. The Christian is no longer a sinner, courting sin; he is set apart for a sacred use; he is taken away from the service of sin; the world has no right to him; he has no right to go after it. Oh it is not every use you can put a Christian to, for he is devoted to the service of God; he is called into holiness; he is washed and sanctified. * * * * * And now, in the review of our subject, let us walk about these living temples and notice their most prominent peculiarities, that we may see what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and doctrine. As temples, they are costly edifices, bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. They are enduring, built to stand the temptations of time, to survive the wreck and conflagration of the last day. They are beautiful in their proportions, with no heavenly grace left out, and no foul deformities suffered to remain. They belong to God. They are not their own. They are God's building. They are the dwelling-places of God's Spirit. They are holy: washed, sanctified, and consecrated to God's service. Such is the picture of God's people which the apostle holds up before us when he says, "Ye are the temple of God." I confess it is a bold and highly-drawn picture; but it was the pencil of inspiration, and not mine, which drew it. The soul of every true saint is that temple. It has a holy of holies where God's Spirit dwells. The world, the flesh, and the devil have been cast out. It has an altar on which the sacrifice of thanksgiving is laid, a censer in which burns the incense of prayer, which rolls aloft to heaven, while the voice of praise and adoration echoes through its arches and along its aisles. Sublime and beautiful picture! Is it a fancy piece; or is it a reality? It is a reality. The apostle's soul was such a temple. There were such temples in Corinth when he wrote this epistle--temples more grand and beautiful than all the Corinthian columns and gilded domes which adorned that city. Every true saint is such a temple. Every professor of religion claims to be one.