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There is nothing inconsistent in the assertion that the same living society is possessed of beauty and of terribleness. To the susceptible mind there is ever something awful in beauty; it is felt to be Divine. There is a side of beauty which verges upon sublimity. We feel this in gazing upon the headlong cataract, the glorious sea. It sometimes seems to us as though God draws near to our souls when we suddenly behold a noble woman's grace and charm and pure ethereal expression. So there is in Christ's Church a severity as well as a winningness of beauty; we are conscious in some phases of Christian life of an aspect of deep and unspeakable awe. How is this to be explained?

I. THE SPIRITUAL CHURCH IS TERRIBLE AS THE DEPOSITARY OF THE MYSTERIOUS, AND SUPERNATURAL GRACE OF GOD. It is the scene of the "real presence" of him who ever fulfils his own assurance, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

II. AS POSSESSING IN HOLINESS OF CHARACTER A SUBLIMITY WHICH APPEALS TO THE CHASTENED AND APPRECIATIVE IMAGINATION. Moving with spotless garments amidst the world's defilement and contamination, the true Church presents to the enlightened vision a spectacle of true sublimity, and commands our reverence as that which on earth is most truly sublime.

III. AS REBUKING AND FORBIDDING ALL THAT IS MORALLY EVIL. To penitents the attitude of the Church of Christ is, as was the Master's, benignant and compassionate; but to hardened sinners and to contemptible hypocrites there is a sternness and severity in its demeanour which may well make its presence terrible.

IV. AS POSSESSED OF MILITANT PROWESS AND POWERS. "Terrible as an army with banners." The Church has to confront the hosts of ignorance, of error, and of sin; its attitude and its equipment must, therefore, partake of the nature of a warlike force. As an army, the Church of Christ acknowledges the leadership of the Divine Captain of our salvation; is supplied with weapons, not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds; is distinguished by a duly martial spirit, shrinking from no conflict to which it is called, by steady discipline and by just order. Well, then, may it be likened to an embattled host, with banners floating on the breeze, and the voice of the Commander ringing through the ranks. The spectacle is grand and awe-inspiring - an earnest of victory, an omen of empire. - T.

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KJV: Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.

WEB: You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.