Sermon 1494. The One Foundation

(No. 1494)

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1879,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For no other Foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:11.

BUILDING is very important, but the first question must always concern the foundation. However quickly, however cleverly aman may build, if the foundation is unsound, he is a foolish builder. And however slowly, however laboriously a man may proceed,his building will not put him to shame if he has set his walls erect upon a firm basis. This is emphatically true in spiritualthings, for there, the foundation is of the utmost importance. The hearer of the Word of God who is not a doer, also, comesto a fatal end because, as the Savior says, he has built upon sand and, therefore, his fabric in the day of storm and floodis swept away. But he who hears the Word and does it is secure because he digs deep and lays his foundation upon a rock and,therefore, his building survives the rains of trial from above, the floods of persecution from without and the mysteriouswinds of Satanic temptation which howl from every quarter.

The best masonry must crack and fall if the groundwork is unstable-the higher the pinnacle, the speedier its fall if the baseis insecure. As to what the foundation is in the religion of Jesus Christ, there is no question. This verse declares it tobe decided beyond controversy. A man may build the superstructure, in some measure, according to his own tastes and judgment,but it must be based upon the one Foundation. There may be room for varieties of style in the upper building, but there canbe no variety in the groundwork. That is fixed forever by the unchanging God, who says, "Behold, I lay in Zion a foundationstone."

It must be acknowledged that all Christian minds and lives do not take exactly the same form and fashion-there are among thebest of Christian builders certain grades of excellencies-one man builds with gold, another with silver and a third with preciousstones. But as to the foundation, all are on a level, Christ is all and in all! Whether the gracious life is rich as a goldenpalace, or pure as a temple of silver, or substantial as a tower of marble. Whether it is public or obscure, wide or narrow,it must, in every case, be built upon the same basement of eternal Rock-"for no other Foundation can anyone lay than thatwhich is laid."

You may say, "we will agree to differ" about matters which concern the superstructure, but we must agree to agree as to theFoundation, for if we are not at one with the plain statement of the text, we are in the wrong. The Apostle is dogmatic tothe very last degree-"No other Foundation can anyone lay." "But," says one, "various teachers did lay other foundations."The Apostle will not admit that they were foundations-they were not worthy of the name-the imposture was too shallow to succeed.No builder, if he looked upon a heap of sand poured into an excavation, would admit that it was a foundation. If he saw amass of decayed vegetation and garden rubbish heaped together, no architect would for one moment allow it to be spoken ofas foundation!

Paul declares that there is but one Foundation, and that there is none beside it, or beyond it- and that the one only, unalterable,immovable, everlasting Foundation is Jesus Christ! It is not to be imagined that there are other foundations somewhat differingand only a little inferior to the Lord Jesus-there is no other and no other can be laid. It is not a question of comparison,but of monopoly! All other groundworks and principles, whatever may be said in their praise, are mere lies if they are setforth as foundations, for the Lord Jesus has exclusive possession of that title and in Him, alone, all that is fundamentalis summed up-"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby wemust be saved."

And truly, when you think that God, from all eternity, has made His only-begotten Son to be the Foundation and Cornerstone,it will be seen that this Rock goes deep into the very nature of things, yes, deep as infinity itself and, therefore, therecannot be two of the kind, for of whom else is it written that verily He was foreordained before the

foundation of the world? Of whom else is it said, "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was"?When you think that this Foundation is nothing less than Divine, for Christ is very God of very God, it is as impossible thatthere should be two foundations as that there should be two Gods!

You must imagine two redemptions before you can conceive of two groundworks for our confidence. Who will dream of two atonements,two Saviors, two Christs? Yet must such a thing be before there can be two foundations! None but Jesus, the Divine Savior,could sustain the weight of a single soul with all its sins, much less of all the souls, which are built up into the Templeof God! Jesus alone can sustain our eternal interest, deliver us from eternal wrath, or lift us into eternal bliss. "Thereis one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus." His own words in prophecy are very positive-"I, evenI, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Savior." And equally expressive is His personal declaration-"I am the way, the truth,and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me."

I will sketch out my discourse with these four lines which I may not always be able to keep from intersecting, but they shalleach be marked deeply and broadly so that none can help seeing them. First, there is no Church but what is built on Christ.Secondly, there is no Gospel but what is built on Christ. Thirdly, there is no hope of salvation but what is built on Christ.And fourthly, there is no Christian but what is built on Christ.

I. First, there is NO CHURCH BUT WHAT IS BUILT ON CHRIST, I mean, of course, no true, no real Church. There are many churchesin the world, so called, but this may be laid down as a first principle that there is but one Church and that this one Churchis built upon Christ, alone. Whatever community, congregation, hierarchy, sect, or corporation may call itself a Church, oreven the Church, if it is not built upon Christ, is not a Church at all. No matter how great in numbers, nor how ancient,nor how wealthy, nor how learned, nor how pretentious, bigoted, dominant, or exclusive it may be-it is not Christ's Churchif it is not built upon Christ!

To begin with, a foundation is the first portion of a building and so is the Lord Jesus first and foremost with His Church,for His people were chosen in Him. God has always had in His purpose and decrees a chosen people, but He has had no such peopleapart from Christ. The Apostle says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with allspiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."We were chosen in Christ Jesus! He is "the First Born among many brethren" and the Lord has "predestinated us to be conformedto the image of His Son." The first setting apart of the Church and making it to be the peculiar inheritance of God was inconnection with Christ-

"Christ is My first elect,' He said, Then chose our souls in Christ our Head."

We were never otherwise chosen, nor otherwise beloved, nor otherwise appointed to eternal life than as regarded in ChristJesus and one with Him. No single soul can be said to be elect otherwise than as it is considered in connection with Christ.Much less, then, is there a Church of God apart from the eternal purpose concerning Christ Jesus, the Covenant Head and federalRepresentative of His people. The foundation must be laid first and so was our Lord Jesus Christ first appointed. "Thereforethus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation."Jesus is called by the Father, "My elect in whom My soul delights," and there are none elect except such as are in Him inthe eternal purpose of Divine Grace.

But next, a foundation is the support of all and there is no Church but that which derives all its support from Christ Jesus.If there is any company of people calling themselves a Church who depend for salvation and eternal life upon anything besides,or beyond the merit of Christ's atoning blood, they are not a Church! That all things are of God and that He has reconciledus unto Himself by Christ Jesus is a Truth of God never to be doubted. The atoning Savior is the Cornerstone of the Church.He is the one Rock of our salvation, the one pillar of our strength. As living stones, we are built up into a spiritual house,but we, one and all, rest and depend upon Him and upon no other.

To us the Word of the Lord has come with power, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made thatsame Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ." The great atoning Sacrifice of Christ must be the sole relianceof the whole Church as well as of each individual. And this must be set forth with great clearness and distinction as itsfirst and greatest doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, in whom we have redemption through His blood and the forgivenessof sins according to the riches of His Grace.

The Atonement taken away, no Church remains. Call the community a religious club if you like, but it is no Church when oncethe Atonement made by the Lord Jesus, through His death in the place of His people, is denied or ignored. Nor do we judgea community to be worthy of the name of a Church which places its dependence for its present power and future progress anywherebut in the almighty Savior. Jesus says, "Because I live you shall also live," and the Church must draw its daily life fromthe immortality of her glorious Head. He that loved us and died for us and rose again is pledged to keep His own and on thatpledge let them repose their faith. Because all power is given unto Him in Heaven and in earth, therefore we go forth to teachthe nations.

He has said, "Lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," therefore we have strength to go forth for the conquestof the world. But if we depend upon an arm of flesh, upon the secular power, upon carnal wisdom, upon education, or eloquence,or prestige, or upon our own zeal and ardor and not upon Christ, we are leaving the Rock for sand! We cannot thus build upChrist's Church, nor ought we to attempt it. The strength of a living Church is the living Christ. We must be very carefulon this point, that when we are zealous in building, we build only upon Christ and by Christ, for edifices otherwise erectedwill fall in heaps. We must, as a Church, not only rely upon the Christ that died, but upon the Christ who is gone into Gloryand sits at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning on our behalf-who also shall shortly come to gather together the scatteredand to reign among His own.

The true Church, like a vine, derives its life sap for its branches from Jesus and from no other source. She can say of herglorious Redeemer, "My Soul, wait only upon the Lord, for my expectation is from Him." Other communities may lean on princes,but she comes up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved. Other congregations may look to human greatness for support,but her eyes are towards the hills where comes her help-her help comes from the Lord which made Heaven and earth!

Furthermore, a foundation has the shaping of the building and the true Church shapes and forms itself upon the Lord Jesusas its ground plan and outline. The shape of a building must, to a very large extent, be determined by its foundation. Ifyou have ever traced the foundations of an ancient abbey or castle, as they have appeared on a level with the soil, you haveproceeded to infer the form of the building from the run of the ground line. Here was a sharp angle; there was a circulartower; there was a buttress and there was a recess. The building must have followed the ground line and so must every trueChurch be built upon Christ in the sense of following His Word and ordinances to the best of its knowledge and understanding.

The law of Christ is the law of the Church. All the decrees of popes and councils. All the resolutions of assemblies, synods,presbyteries and associations. And all the ordinances of men as individuals, however great they are, when they are all puttogether, if they at all differ from the Law of Christ, they are mere wind and waste paper! No, they are worse-they are treasonableinsults to the majesty of King Jesus! Those who build apart from the authority of Christ build off of the Foundation and theirfabric will fall. There is no Law and no authority in a true Church but that of Christ Himself. We who are His ministers areHis servants and the servants of the Church-not lords or lawmakers. To His Law a faithful Church brings all things as to thesure test.

As churches we are not legislators, but subjects. It is not for us to frame constitutions, invent offices and decree ritesand ceremonies-but we are to take everything out of the mouth of Christ and to do what He bids us, as He bids us and whenHe bids us. Parliaments and kings have no authority whatever in the Church-Christ alone rules! If any portion of a Churchis not based upon Christ, it is a mere deforming addition to the plan of the great Architect and mars the temple which Godhas built. What a blessed thing it is to feel that you belong to a Church which has the Rock under it because it is constitutedby Christ's authority! We feel safe in following an ordinance which is of His commanding, but we should tremble if we hadonly custom and human authority for it.

How secure we feel in believing a doctrine which is of our Lord's teaching, for we can say, "this is not mere opinion; thisis not the judgment of a wise man; this is not the decree of councils, but this is the Master's own declaration." Not oneof His Words shall ever fall to the ground. There is in His authority no change-His Word is forever settled in Heaven andHe is, in Himself, the same yesterday, today and forever. Steadfast is that Church which carefully follows His guiding line,but that which departs from His fixed rule and authority has left the Foundation and therein ceased to be a Church.

A foundation is indispensable to a building and so Christ is indispensable to a true Church. In a house you could do withoutcertain of the windows. You might close in a door and you might remove parts of the roof and it might still be a house, butyou cannot have a house at all if you take away the foundation! And so you cannot have a Church of Christ if Jesus Christis not there as the Foundation and Cornerstone. When sermons are preached without so much as the mention of Christ's name,it takes more than charity-it requires you to tell a lie to say, "That was a Christian sermon." And if any people find theirjoy in a teaching which casts the Lord Jesus into the background, they are not His Church, or else such teaching would bean abomination to them.

Yet I have heard it said that from some ministries you may go away like Mary Magdalene from the sepulcher, exclaiming, "Theyhave taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." One told me the other day that he had heard a discoursefrom a Christian pulpit which would have been applauded by Jews and Muslims, for there was not a trace of Christ in it. Anotherdeclared that in another place he heard priests, clergy and sacraments so much puffed up that as for faith in the Lord Jesusit seemed to be a very small matter. Brothers and Sisters, this is not so in the Church of Christ! There the Lord Jesus isAlpha and Omega-first and last-beginning and end! True Christians make much of Christ! Indeed, they make all of Him!

And as for priests and preachers we say, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even asthe Lord gave to every man"? O Brothers and Sisters, let us see to this! If anything is put into Christ's place we make itan Antichrist and we are not Christians, but anti-Christians! The true Church says, "Give us what learning and eloquence youwill, but we cannot be content unless Christ is glorified! Preach us what you may, we will never be satisfied unless He whois the express Image of the Father shall be set forth in our midst." Then, I say, she speaks like the true bride of Christ,but if she can be content to see her Lord dishonored she is no chaste spouse of Christ!

Let us put this, our first point, in a few sentences. It is not the union of men with men that makes a Church if Jesus Christis not the center and the bond of the union. The best of men may come into bonds of amity and they may form a league, or afederation for good and useful purposes-but they are not a Church unless Jesus Christ is the basis upon which they rest. Hemust be the ground and Foundation of the hope of each and of all. Neither can a Church be created by a mere union to a minister.It is most good and pleasant to see Brethren dwelling together in unity-it is most advantageous that between the pastor andhis flock there should be perfect love, but the relationship must not be exaggerated beyond due bounds.

Brethren, there must be no glorying in men, nor blind following of them! A body formed of individuals whose religion liesin drinking in the theories and opinions of a religious teacher falls short of being a Church of God. The Church is not builton Paul, nor upon Apollos, nor upon Cephas, but upon the sole authority of Jesus Christ! We are not to be believers in Luther,Calvin, Wesley, or Whitefield, but in Christ! Of such believers a true Church must be composed. Neither is a Church made bythe following of any particular form or rite. We have one Lord, one faith, one Baptism- and we are bound to be loyal to Christin His ordinances as in all else-but it is not the practice of an ordinance which constitutes a Church!

It is well to be united and bound together in loyalty to the faith once delivered to the saints, but unless there is vital,personal union with the Person of Christ on the part of the members of the Church, their association may constitute a leaguefor the defense of orthodoxy, or a confederation for the maintenance of a form of religious thought, but it is not a Church!No, most blessed Lord, You must be there, or nothing is there! Pastors, elders, deacons, teachers, evangelists- these arecourses of precious stones in the heavenly temple-but without You they are no Church, for the Foundation is needed-You, myLord, are needed!

All Your saints come to You and rest on You, O Christ, and in You all the building, fitly framed together, grows unto an holyTemple in the Lord. You are the Stem from which it branches, the Head in which it lives, the Shepherd by whom it is fed, theCaptain by whom it is marshaled, the Husband to whom it is married! You are, indeed, the All in All of the Church which Youhave redeemed with Your own blood-

"God has a sure Foundation given,

Fixed as the firm decrees of Heaven!

The changeless everlasting Rock,

That bra ves the storm, and bides the shock.

There build the gates of Hell in vain

Against that Rock their war maintain. Christ is the Rock, the Cornerstone, God rears His beauteous house thereon."

Thus far, then, we have declared that there is no Church except that which is built on Jesus Christ. This Truth of God weassert in the face of all men-let them make what they will of it.

II. Secondly, we assert that there is NO GOSPEL BUT WHAT IS BUILT ON JESUS CHRIST. There are many pretended gospels in theworld. Paul said once, "another Gospel," and then he corrected himself and said, "which is not another," for strictly speakingthere is only one Gospel and there cannot be two! The good news, God's Good News to men, is one. There never were two gospels,for there never were two Savior's or two redemptions and there never will be! But a Savior and a redemption are necessaryto a Gospel and, therefore, there can be only one. The Foundation of the Gospel is one, namely Jesus Christ, and there isno other possible foundation.

For, first, there is but one Mediator, by whom God speaks Words of Grace. "There is one God and one Mediator between God andmen, the Man, Christ Jesus." If then, Beloved, any man shall come to you and say, "God has spoken to me and bid me say toyou somewhat other and above what Jesus has said," receive him not! If any man says to you, "I have a revelation from Heavenand God bids me speak," if he speaks not according to the Words of Christ Jesus, he is a false prophet and comes not fromGod at all. Yes, moreover, if bishop, or council, or Church speak otherwise than Christ has spoken, the Truth of God is notin any of them!

All that ever spoke from God, both before Christ and after Christ, have spoken after their manner and measure in the samefashion as Christ Jesus, the Lord, for the voice of God is not two, but one, and the Word of God is not two or three, butone. And now, at this day, you may rest quite certain that if God has anything to say to us, He has, in these last days, spokento us by His Son and His own hand has closed and sealed the Revelation of God. Woe unto us if we hear Him not and woe untous if we listen to other voices! Indeed, if we are the sheep of Christ, we shall not regard new voices, for our Lord has saidit, "A stranger will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers." The true Gospel comes through Christ as theMediator and through Him alone-and that which comes otherwise is not the Gospel.

The true Gospel has Christ's Divine Person as its glory and there can be no Gospel without this. Christ is God and in Himdwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In the Person of Christ the Divinity has come down to us to heal our diseasesand remove our griefs. Now, if you hear of a Gospel which begins by saying that Christ is not the Only-Begotten of the Father,or that He is not the Son of God, close your ears to it, for it is not the Gospel of God! Unless Jesus is extolled as Godover all, blessed forever, the preaching is not the Gospel!

Jesus Christ is the essence of the Gospel-He is the Good News, as well as the medium of it. The good news is that God hassent His only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Eternal redemption has been obtained for us by thelife, death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus-this is the Gospel. There is pardon through His blood, justification throughHis righteousness and sanctification through His Spirit. Complete salvation is freely provided for Believers in Him and theGrace of God through Him is abundantly displayed to the very chief of sinners! God has made Him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness,sanctification and redemption-in fact, all the blessings that are needed to lift man up into the favor of God-and keep himthere forever, are stored up in the Person of Jesus, in whom God's love has displayed itself to the fullest degree. Jesusis the sum and substance, crown and glory of the Gospel.

If then, you hear a gospel in which the freewill of man is spoken of as the main agent. If you hear a gospel in which theworks of man, or the forms and ceremonies practiced by priests are set up as being fundamental things, reject such teaching,for it is not the good news from Heaven! The only Good News is this, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,not imputing their trespasses unto them." Let others preach what they please, as for us, "we preach Christ Crucified." JesusHimself preached the very Gospel of the Gospel when He cried, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and Iwill give you rest."

Now then, Brothers and Sisters, for I speak to many of you who teach the Gospel, I beseech you to remember my simple textof today and, from now on, teach nothing apart from Christ. The teaching of doctrines is not the teaching of the Gospel ifthose doctrines are held in a dry, didactic style apart from Christ. Suppose I preach the doctrine of election. That is onething-but unless I preach that we are chosen in Christ I have left out the Foundation and my teaching

crumbles to the ground as a bowing wall or as a tottering fence! Suppose I preach final perseverance, it is well. But I havenot preached the Gospel unless I show that it is because Jesus lives, we shall also live and that the preservation of thesaints depends on their union with Him!

Suppose I am teaching justification-it is not the true justification unless it is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesuswhich I hold forth! Here I commend to you the example of the earlier preachers of the Church. From such of their writingsas remain, we gather that they dwelt much upon the actual events of the Redeemer's life. They are not always so clear as onecould wish upon the great doctrines as Paul gives them to us, but there is one point in which they excel. You may not hearenough from them about justification by faith, but you hear a great deal concerning the precious blood of Christ! They donot always speak so clearly upon regeneration as we would desire, but they speak much of the Resurrection of Christ and ofthe newness of life which His saints enjoy because of it!

Pardon to them is a washing in the blood of Christ. Conversion is being called by Christ. Resurrection is a risen Christ.Everything is brought out as a matter of fact arising from the actual life and death of the Savior and I am free to confessthat I greatly admire this way of preaching the Gospel. How does Paul put it? What was the Gospel to him? Hear him-"Moreover,brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; bywhich also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I deliveredunto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and thatHe was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of thetwelve."

Thus, you see, Paul's body of Divinity was the life and death of that only embodied Divinity, the Lord Jesus. My Brothersand Sisters, always set forth the Gospel in close connection with your Lord, fetching it, as it were, out of Him. The juiceof the grape is pleasant, but if you would know what it is in all its purity keep the grapes near you and press them in thevineyard where they grow. So the Gospel is the wine of Christ, but it is sweetest when it flows fresh from the cluster. PreachJesus Christ when you preach His doctrine, or else you may make the doctrine to be like the stone at the door of His sepulcher,whereas it ought to be like a throne of ivory on which, like another Solomon, your Lord sits resplendent! Some preach experienceand they do well-but they should be exceedingly careful to keep Jesus very prominent.

We have a school of Brothers who preach little else than experience and I do not condemn them. But what is the experienceof a poor fellow sinner to me? How does it help me to hear that he groans as I do, or sings as I do? It may be of some smallservice to me, but there are more excellent things! I need to know how Jesus felt and what Christ can do for my Brother andfor me. Experience is admirable when Jesus Christ is set forth in it, but if you take up an experimental vein of things, whetherof human corruption, or have human perfection and Jesus Christ in the background, you are marring the Gospel! Jesus is theone Foundation and there is no Gospel apart from Him!

So, too, with practice. By all means let us have practical preaching and plenty of it! And let it come down sternly and faithfullyon the vices of the times. But merely to preach against this and that vice and extol this and that virtue is a mission fitenough for Socrates or Plato, but does not well become a minister of Jesus Christ! Set Jesus forth, my practical Brother!His example shames vice and encourages virtue! Set Him up as the mirror of all perfection and in Him men will see what theyought to be and learn how to come at it. Jesus Christ, then, is the only Gospel! We leave that point, being abundantly surethat you are persuaded of it.

III. Thirdly. THERE IS NO HOPE OF SALVATION BUT THAT WHICH IS BUILT UPON CHRIST. This is

another point upon which I need not speak much. I will only spend a few minutes in talking upon certain other hopes. No doubtsome think it must be well with them because they were brought up from their childhood most respectably. Their parents wereexcellent Christian people and they believe that they, themselves, having never done anything very wrong, are no doubt safe.

Ah, my dear Hearers, if this is your only hope, you are lost, for you are dead in sin! That which is born of the flesh, thebest of flesh that ever was is flesh and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God! You must be born again! You musthave a far better hope than any which can spring out of your birth and your relations. "Yes, but," says someone, "I had allthe ceremonies of the Church performed upon me." Yes, and it makes no difference to me what Church it was. If you are building,even, upon rites which God has given, they will not suffice you-they cannot bear the

weight of your soul. Baptism, the Lord Supper, or 50,000 sacraments, if men were to make so many, would not help you one solitaryinch! The only Foundation for your soul's hope must be Christ and none of these outward things.

"Ah," says another, "but I have diligently performed a great many good works." I would to God you had 10 times as many goodworks, but if you have committed one single sin, no works can save you! All the good works of the best men that ever livedwould make but a rotten foundation for them if they were to place reliance on them. Abound in good works, but do not trustthem! Human merit is a foundation of sand. "But I have had special spiritual feelings," says one. "I have been broken down,I have been lifted up." Yes, you may have been crushed down to Hell's door and lifted up to Heaven's gate-but there is nothingin feelings and excitements which can be a ground of hope.

"Why," says one, "it has troubled me that I have not had these feelings." Do not let it trouble you, but go to Jesus Christand rest in Him! Feelings or no feelings! High frames and low frames are all delusions if they are trusted in. We can no morebe saved by our feelings than by our works. "Oh, but," says another, "I have confidence that I am saved, for I have had awonderful dream and, moreover, I heard a voice and saw a vision!" Rubbish all! Dreams, visions, voices? Throw them all away!There is not the slightest reliance to be placed upon them. "What, not if I saw Christ?" No, certainly not, for vast multitudessaw Him in the days of His flesh-and died and perished, after all! "But surely a dream will save me." It will give you a dreamyhope and when you awake in the next world your dream will be gone!

The one thing to rest upon is the sure Word of testimony-Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and whoever believesin Him is not condemned. I believe in Him and, therefore, I am not condemned! Why do I believe my sin to be forgiven? BecauseJesus died to put away the sins of Believers and there is no condemnation to those who are in Him! Why do I believe myselfto be justified? Because he that believes is justified-the Word of God says so. How do I know that I am saved? Because JesusChrist has declared that whoever believes in Him is not condemned! To believe in Him is to trust in Him, to make Him my Foundation!I trust in Him. He is my Foundation and I am saved, or else His Word is not true.

I know that His Word is true and, therefore, I am at rest. It is written, "He that believes in Him has everlasting life."I believe in Him, therefore I have everlasting life! I have His promise that I shall never perish, neither shall any pluckme out of His hands, therefore I shall never perish, neither shall any separate me from His love. You see, then, there isno hope of salvation but what is fixed upon Christ alone! And I invite and entreat you, if any of you have any hope whichgoes beyond Christ or besides Christ, get rid of it! Throw it on a dunghill and loathe it as an insult to God! Do as the mandid with the bad bank note. When he found it was a forgery he buried it and ran away as fast as he could, for fear anybodyshould think the note had ever been in his possession!

So, if you are trusting in anything that is not of Christ, bury your faith and run away from it, for it is a false confidenceand will work ill to your soul! Let your faith cry, "None but Christ!" All-saving faith delights in that cry. For eternalsalvation, "no other Foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid."

IV. Our last point is this-THERE IS NO CHRISTIAN BUT THE MAN BUILT ON JESUS CHRIST. Here is a Christian and of one thing inhim I am sure-I cannot tell whether he holds Arminian views or Calvinistic views, but if he is a Christian he has no Foundationbut Christ. Here is a person who reverences the Pope. Here is another who glories in the name of Protestant. Here is a thirdwho is a Baptist-which is the Christian out of these? I answer, he is the Christian that is built on Christ, whoever he maybe. But if he can do without Christ, he is not worthy of the name of Christian!

What do we mean? Why this. I mean first, every man to be a Christian must rest His whole soul upon Christ as to eternal salvation.There must be no stuttering or stammering over that! There must be no mixing up the merits of Jesus with priests or ceremonies.No, it must be a clear-a straight line-Christ for me! Christ everything for me-my one and only hope! Any deviation here isfatal. On the Cross is written, Spes unica and it remains the one and only hope of a burdened soul.

Next, if you are to be a Christian, Christ must be your model. By the aid of His Holy Spirit, you must try to do what He wouldhave done in your position and under your circumstances. You are not to say, "I cannot follow Christ in this." You are neverto renounce His leadership. If you do, you must give up being a Christian because you are bound to take up His Cross and followHim. He claims to be your King when He becomes your Savior. A true Christian is a man who builds upon Christ, as his Model,as walls are built on a foundation. A true Christian is one whose growing up is in

Christ, for, strange to say, the Temple of God grows. Nor need we wonder, for it is a living temple. I have seen magnificentpieces of architecture masterpieces and it has struck me, when I looked at them, that they must have grown.

An ordinary, clumsy bit of work displays the mason and the carpenter, but perfect architecture looks as if it grew! And Christ'sChurch does grow, for Christ's people grow. But all our growing up must come out of Christ. When a man says, "Years ago Iused to worship with these Christian people and I felt very happy with them, but I have now more education and have got beyondthem," he is guided by his pride and not by Divine Grace. No true Christian talks so! The higher he grows, the more he growsinto Christ! The wiser he is, the more he shows the wisdom of Christ. If he has begun aright, he may advance as far as hecan, but he never can advance beyond Christ. He will get to be less and Christ will be more and more to him, for he is nota Christian who does not stick to this-that the Foundation goes as far as he means to go and he builds never beyond that-butbuilds upward upon that and upon that alone.

And he, again, is the true Christian who lives for Christ, to whom Christ's Glory is the great object of his being. He isa Christian who reckons that time wasted which is not used for Jesus-that substance wasted which is not used in obedienceto Jesus-who considers that he does not live except as Christ lives in him. Brothers and Sisters, I pray that you may allbe Christians of this sort-only let it be with you forevermore Jesus Christ. I do not like to preach a sermon without feelingthe presence of my Master. I have done so, but never to my own comfort. I cannot bear to come away from the Monday eveningPrayer Meeting without feeling that the Lord has been there and He generally is.

The true heart does not like to engage in any kind of enterprise without first consulting Him and doing it in His sight. Weare a very busy Church and I want you, as a busy Church, doing a great deal to always keep the Master near you. The most holywork gets to be mere routine-to be done mechanically-unless we enjoy His dear love and sweet Presence and blessed smile inthe doing of His will. Sit at Jesus' feet with Mary as well as work for Him like Martha. May He be the Foundation of everything,not only of the Church, but of our hope, of our character, of every little thing we

do!

When you are laying the first stone of a new enterprise, lay it upon Christ with fair colors. Set it in the vermilion of Hisprecious blood! Perfume it with the oil of gratitude and lay it upon Him alone! And so shall you, by His Grace, build foreternity and glorify His precious name! Amen.