Pathways Press.com

Written by Thomas Kelly (1893-1941), an American Quaker educator. This is an excerpt from his book “The Eternal Promise.”

The church building is not a church, the brick and mortar structure is not a church. God doesn’t live in a house with a peaked roof. God lives inside people. And if God isn’t inside you, you needn’t expect to find him in a house with a peaked roof that is outside you. God is within. And where He dwells, there is a holy place. [George] Fox was finding he had an altar inside his own soul. Inside him was a hushed and holy Presence, too sacred to be destroyed, too wonderful not to be visited continually. The holy Presence was inward. Fox found Him there, and all life was new. It was a wonderful discovery, to find that you are a temple, that you have a church inside you, where God is. There is something awful, that is awe-inspiring, down at the depths of our own soul. In hushed silence attend to it. It is a whisper of God Himself, particularizing Himself for you and in you, and speaking to the world through you.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. [1 Corinthians 1:30].