“We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.”
Christ and his Church are one — one as the stones are one with the foundation; one, as the branches are one with the vine; one, as the wife is one with the husband; one, as the members are one with the head; one as the soul is one with the body; nay, if there can be conceived a union closer still, and there is but one, we are one with Christ, even as Christ is one with his Father. “I in them, and thou in me;” for thus the union stands. Now, as soon as ever we are one with Christ, you see at once that Christ must be ours. There is a common property between Christ and his people. All theirs belongs to him; his belongs to them. They have not two stocks, they have but one. He has cast in his wealth, they have cast in their poverty, from that day they have common funds; they have but one purse they have all things in common. All he is and all he has is theirs, and all they are or can be belongs to him.
From a sermon entitled "The Interest of Christ and His People in Each Other," delivered March 29, 1861. Flickr photo by Mazda Hewitt; some rights reserved.
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