“Here again we see the heart of a Christian. Men may think as they please, but a true Christian loves the church as such. It is God’s church. It is his own spiritual mother. It contains all his Christian brethren. It is the sanctuary of truth on the earth. It is the nursery of souls for heaven. In Zion God delights to dwell. In Zion is found almost all the real virtue which earth contains. In Zion the believer has obtained his brightest hopes. In Zion he finds his best enjoyments. The victories of Zion are the conquests of truth; her prosperity is the welfare of mankind; her success, the world’s salvation; her glory, the glory of God. She is the purchase, the inheritance, and the kingdom of him whom the Christian owns as his God, and loves as his Elder Brother. And how is it possible that he should do otherwise than love her? ‘If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning: if I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.’ Such was the language of the church’s faith at Babylon, even when her harp was upon the willows. It is strong language; but it has its echo, however faint, in every bosom where Jesus dwells.” - E.C. Wines, The True Penitent Portrayed in a Practical Exposition of the Fifty-First Psalm (1864), pp. 65-66