"And next see, my friends, how the figure is carried out by the two Apostles, St. Paul and St. Peter, so as to embrace all the faithful members of Christ's Church. They are represented by St. Paul as 'the whole _building fitly framed together_[212],' and by St. Peter, as the living stones which compose this living temple--'Ye also as _lively stones_ are built up a _spiritual house_[213].' And this figure of a living temple is thus constantly employed by the sacred writers: 'Know ye not that your bodies are the _Temple of God_?' writes St. Paul to the Corinthian Church; and, again, 'Ye are the _Temple of the living God_[214].' St. Jude is following out the same idea when he exhorts Christians to _build up themselves in their most holy faith_."
The Vicar ended his sermon with an earnest, practical application of the subject. "Let me entreat you, my dear friends, often to suffer the solemn thoughts which this sacred symbol suggests to dwell on your minds: '_The temple of the Lord_ is holy, which temple _ye are_.' Holy Prophets and Holy Apostles, and confessors, and martyrs, are the foundation of the sacred building; the Holy Jesus is the corner stone, in whom ye--the living stones--must be _fitly framed together_. Mark, my friends, there must be _no schism, no division, no rent or fissure_, that ye may be a spiritual house perfect in all its parts, and pure in all its adornments. Oh, then, cherish that heavenly life within you, which alone can keep the building compact and firm! Be fruitful in good works. Remember faith without works is not living, but _dead_[215]. 'Put on charity, which is the _bond of perfectness_[216],' and will be the best evidence to God and man, and to your own souls, that you possess a living faith; that you are, indeed, _living stones in a living temple_. Be sure the cement that must unite the living stones of the spiritual house is brotherly love and fervent charity. Without these, the house will be divided against itself; its walls will be 'daubed with untempered mortar[217],' and, instead of living stones, there will be but the dead, outlying blocks of a ruined house. 'Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it[218].'