Ver. 11.-The one Foundation. There was a tendency on the part of the Corinthians tu exalt their favourite teachers and leaders. Such exaltation could not but be at the €Xpense of the Lord Jesus himself. In dissuasion from such a course of Church thought and practice, the inspired Apostle Paul puts in a just and clear light the relative positions of the teachers, the taught, and the great theme of all Christian instruction. He makes use of a familiar figure of speech, based upon the comm.on craft of masonry. Christ is the Fo1tndation; the people of Christ are the stones of the structure reared thereon ; and the apostles and other teachers are builders of the spiritual edifice. It is of the Foundation that the text especially treats. I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE SPIRITUAL TEMPLE. 1. The temple is .composed of human souls, fashioned into a Divine unity and endowed with a Divine life. 2. The temple is inhabited and inspired by the Holy Ghost consecrating and hououring it. 3. This temple has actually and historically been called into existence by the ministry and mediation of Jesus Christ, who has thus constituted himself its Foundation. As Son of God and Son of man, as the accepted Mediator, as the authoritative Teacher and rightful Lord, he is the Author and the Basis of the true Church. II. THE PERFECT SUFFICIENCY OF THIS FOUNDATION. 1. Christ is a Foundation deep and strong enough to support the fabric reared upon him. No fear need be enter- tained as to the permanence of Christ's Church. It may be assailed by the storms of persecution, it may be threatened by the decaying force of time; but "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." It rests on Uhrist, and the Foundation standeth tmre. 2. Christ is a Foundation broad and comprehensive enough to underlie the widest, stateliest structure. None who is conversant with the character, the designs, the promises of Jesus Christ, can question this. In our day, all systems that are narnw are doomed to contempt and destruction. 'l'his fate Uhristianity 11eed not fear; -en. m. 1-23.J THE FIRS'!' EPISTLE 'l'O THE CORINTHIANS. lOi
it has only to be tme to the Divine Head and Lord, and nought can overturn it or ev,·11 injuro it. Ill. TnE EXCLUSIVENESS OF THIS FOUNDATION. Upon this the text lays an •<•special stress. 1. No other is permitted by God. It would be dishonourin~ to tl,., Father to suppose that his Son can be replaced or supplemented by any other; th" ~nfficiency of the Divine provision does not admit of qu,,stion. 2. No other is needed by man. 3. No other is possible. Any other than the Divine Foundation must be ,,f man's appointment, must be indeed merely human. The apogtle teaches that he an,! Apollos were only builders upon the Foundation, and could not therefore be the Foundation itself. IV. THE RELATIONS MEN SUSTAIN TO THIS FOUNDATION. 1. All Christians arc ,represented as living stones built upon Christ. Each has his own place and his own use; but all are alike in this fact-they support themselves upon the stron~ foundation laid in Jesus. 2. All Christian pastors and teachers are building upon Christ. The question for them to ask is this: Are we building into the walls of the <temple such material as will endure the test of trial and the test of time ?-T. Ver. 13.-The test of fire. "Fire is a good servant, but a bad master." The element is symbolical of proof and testing; for where it has its liberty and may do its work unchecked, there is little that can withstand its assaults and outlast its ravages. How many a city, like this Corinth itself, has been burnt, and laid for the most part in ashes, so that only the most substantial buildings have survived the con- flagration ! So shall all spiritual work, sooner or later, be tested and put to the proof. The means may seem severe, but the result shall be decisive. I. THE woHK, 1. It is spiritual, not material work, of which the assertion is made. All are builders, not only of their own character and destiny, but of the character and -destiny of some associates. There is an awful solemnity attaching to this responsible work in which men are bound to engage. 2. Every man's work is in question, especially that of every professedly Chiistian labourer who aims to build in the temple of the living God. The learned aud the illiterate, the sober and the enthusiast, the sanguine cnnd the desponding,-all are teaching Christian doctrine, and are more or less exercisin;.; influeoce over human souls. 3. Work of every kind is included-genuine and preten- .tious, hasty and gradually progressive, sound and superficial. II. THE FIRE. This must be something universally applicable, since it is not represented as an accident befalling here and there one, but as an incident of every man's labour of every kind to pass through this fire. We shall not be wrong in terming it the fire of judgment, fire being the discriminatiog and decisive element. The fire may purify, and it may consume. It is possible that this fire may burn here and now; it is certain that it will burn hereafter, when God "shall try every rnau's work of what sort it is." III. THE TEST. There are circumstances and times which have no virtue of pro- 1,ation. There is weather in which the soundly built house, the well-found ship, cannot be distinguished from the most ill-planned and faultily constructed house, the most unseaworthy craft. But the storm tries both. And the fire of judgrnent puts to the proof the workmanship of the spiritual labourer. "Judge nothing before the time." " 'l'he day will declare it, for it shall be revealed in fire." None can evade this trial or <leceive him who shall then cast all work into the furnace of his probation. IV. THE RESULT. It shall be unmistakable and decisive. 1. To the work which is sound and workmanlike glory shall accrue, and credit to the faithful and diligent labourer. The precious metals and the costly marbles shall be none the worse but rnther the better for the test; their qualities shall shine out the more resplendent. 2. To the work which is bad destruction shall come; for the wood, hay, and stubble of false doctrine and of worthless profession shall be consumed and shall disappear. The builder may escape, though only as through the burning embers and the falling sparks. "If the righteous scarcely b<l saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? "-T.
Vers. 16, 17.-" The temple of God." The temple at Jerusalem was holy, bein~ constructed according to Divine directions, inhabited by the Divine glory, and cun- t.ccrated by divinely appointed services and sacrifices. But that temple was local, 108 THE FinST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. [en. m. 1-23.