May 22

PART II.—1 Corinthians 3:11.

WE have seen that Christ is the foundation of the believer's acceptance, peace, hope and eternal salvation. He is also the foundation of his collective and universal Church. The Church is likened to a temple and to a city, of which Jesus is the glorious basis. He is the rock on which his Church is built, and against which, the gates of hell shall never prevail. Holy men and prophets, and apostles are all stones in this superstructure, but Christ alone is laid, as the foundation, who bears all its massy weight, on which it entirely rests. And whether we consider the church, in its militant state on earth, or in its glorified and triumphant state in heaven, Christ is the basis of the whole. Each and all of God's spiritual family, from the new-born babe on earth, to the most exalted beatific spirit in glory, rest wholly upon Christ as the foundation. And what where the DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERS of this foundation? Christ is God's elect and precious foundation,—he is the selected and chosen of God; and he is essentially and infinitely precious,—he is a strong foundation. Omnipotence is one of his attributes. He is the Almighty: both the wisdom and power of God. So strong that it is probable that myriads of worlds are upheld by him. He is a suitable foundation. In him God is glorified, and the sinner honorably saved. He is high enough to shed eternal lustre on all the perfections of the Deity, and low enough to meet the sinner's state, and amply to supply all his exigencies. He is a universal foundation. Hence a guilty world is to be directed to him, and every creature invited to build upon him. He is a perpetual foundation. In all ages, believers have rested upon him. Our parents were directed to him in the first promise; Abel built upon it, and died a martyr for his faith in him. Abraham built upon him, and seeing his day, though afar off, rejoiced and was glad. Prophets and all the holy men of old rested their hopes on him, who in the fulness of the times should come, who is the Christ of God, blessed for evermore. And through all the ages which have passed since his actual appearance to the present, and through all the periods which shall elapse, from now, to the grand and final consummation, he is, and shall be, the one great, and only foundation.