June 20

He is like a man which built an house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock; and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake it; for it was founded upon a rock. Luke 6, 48.

If a house is to stand firm, the walls must be strong and the framework compact, but above all it must rest on a safe and solid foundation.

We must build on the foundation which God has laid and of which He said by the prophet: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." Speaking of this foundation-stone, Peter said to the members of the high Council: "Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, is the Stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the Head of the corner."

Countless have been the false foundations laid and embellished to attract and draw men from the only Foundation, of which Scripture says: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Many build upon reason and the dictates of the human mind. Christians do not make the human mind their God. They know that on questions of religion the human mind furnishes answers totally inadequate to the important cause involved. Reason is blind, dead, and an enemy of God in things spiritual. So it becomes sufficiently clear that human reason cannot be the foundation upon which the faith of a Christian may be built.

Many others base their hope of salvation on their own works of charity and worship, and this can bring no peace to the heart; it must leave the mind forever in uncertainty. No man can satisfy the demands of the Law. When a man has done all in his power, the Law continually requires yet more; and, indeed, man's works are in themselves uncertain.

There are those also who build their trust of obtaining grace and salvation upon what their own heart seems to tell them. But the heart of man is deceitful, and its sensations are more changeable than the moon. We must build our soul on Christ, the Rock of Ages.

Prayer.

O gracious God and Father in heaven, to Thee I render most humble thanks with heart and mouth that, by giving Thy dear Son, Thou didst visit us so graciously and didst raise up our Lord Jesus as a Horn of Salvation in Thy Church, to the end that we should grasp it in true faith, take comfort, joy, and bliss therefrom, and make it our stay in trouble and death. Let us not build our hope on the opinions of men or on our own righteousness, but solely on this Rock, which is the firm Corner-stone in the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Thy divine Word. Amen.

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.