In next order the soot sets to work; it cannot make itself white at first, but instead of being discouraged, tries harder and harder, and comes out clear at last, and the hardest thing in the world ; and for the blackness that it had, obtains in exchange
^ C. B, Keenleyside.
EPHESIANS II. 20-22 73
the power of reflecting all the rays of the sun at once in the vividest blaze that any solid thing can shoot. We call it then a diamond.
Last of all the water purifies or unites itself, contented enough if it only reach the form of a dew-drop ; but if we insist on its proceeding to a more perfect consistence, it crystallizes into the shape of a star.
And for the ounce of slime which we had by political economy of competition, we have by political economy of co-operation, a sapphire, an opal, and a diamond, set in the midst of a star of snow.i
2. The Foundation has been laid by apostles and prophets. They are our spiritual progenitors, the fathers of our faith. "We see Jesus Christ through their eyes ; we read His teaching, and catch His Spirit in their words. Their testimony, in its essential facts, stands secure in the confidence of mankind. Nor was it their words alone, but the men themselves — their character, their life and work — that laid for the Church its historical foundation. This " glorious company of the apostles " formed the first course in the new building, on whose firmness and strength the stability of the entire structure depends. Their virtues and their sufferings, as well as the revelations made through them, have guided the thoughts and shaped the life of countless multitudes of men, of the best and wisest men in all ages since. They have fixed the standard of Christian doctrine and the type of Christian character. At our best, we are but imitators of them as they were of Christ.
V H If a man is to be a pillar in the temple of his God by and by, he must be some kind of a prop in God's house to-day. We are here to support, not to be supported. No one can be a living stone on the foundations of the Spiritual House, which is God's habitation, without being a foundation to the stones above him.^
3. Christ is the chief Corner-stone.
The idea of the corner-stone, so repeatedly alluded to in Scripture, can be understood only by reference to the buildings of remote ages. We must imagine a massive stone, like one of those at Stonehenge, cut to a right angle, and laid in the building so that its two sides should lie along the two walls, which meet at a corner, thus binding them together in such a way that neither
^ Kuskin, Modern Painters ( Works, vii. 207).
* M. D. Babcock, Thoughts for Every-Day Idvmg, 7.
74 SPIRITUAL ARCHITECTURE
force nor weather could dissever them. This term does not necessarily signify that it would be put at the top or at the bottom of a building; it only means that it occupied a very important position, which it would have if it lay a few courses above the lowest, so as to act by its weight on those below, and to serve as a renewed basis to those above. A corner-stone bound together the sides of a building. Some of the corner-stones in the ancient work of the Temple foundations are seventeen or nineteen feet long, and seven and a half feet thick. At Mneveh the corners are sometimes formed of one angular stone. A corner-stone must, then, be of great importance ; hence, more than once in Scripture great princes or leaders of a nation are called by this name of corner, or corner-stone (Judg. xx. 2 ; 1 Sam. xiv. 38 ; Isa. xix. 13). In A.V. they are called the chief, or the stay, of their people ; in the original, the word is " corners," or " corner-stones."
But in a sense far higher, far beyond that in which any earthly prince can be called by this name, may we apply it to our Lord Jesus Christ. He so applied it to Himself, when speaking the parable of the Householder on the last week of His public teaching, as recorded by St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke (Matt. xxi. 42 ; Mark xii. 10 ; Luke xx. 17). It was so applied by St. Peter when, confronting the Sanhedrin, he boldly charged them with being the murderers of Christ : " This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner."
^ Christianity is not one truth, but many ; it is a whole system of truth, and yet is there not one truth in the system that is prominently majestic, as is the sun in the solar system ? It is the truth that centres in Jesus Christ. There are many precious truths on which the Church is built ; there is one truth on which the Church reposes, as upon the corner-stone. There is one truth on which our hopes and prospects all depend. There are many bright and glorious hopes which we gain from this Bible, but there is one which is more prominent than all the others — it is Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners and the King of men. There are many stones in the foundation of our hopes for the future ; there is one corner-stone, that is Jesus Christ.^