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I. THE FOUNDATION LAID.

1. The foundation is Jesus Christ — the foundation of the apostles and prophets, i.e., which they laid. It was laid in the promises, types, and prophecies of the Old Testament, and the witness of apostles and evangelists in the New (John 3:14; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Matthew 16:16).

2. The foundation of the Church must be the foundation of each member of the Church. The essence of a foundation lies in its strength. The foundation in individual character is truth. Truth is a Person — "I am the Truth." The foundation, therefore, is the truth concerning Jesus Christ believed, loved, and lived. The gospel thus received becomes a principle which forms the mainspring of a new life.

II. THE BUILDING RISING.

1. Look abroad upon the face of the world, and note the advances which the Church is making in all parts. The very hindrances to missionary work prove its success, for the more active the servants of God are, the more active the agents of Satan will be.

2. The building must rise in each heart. Growth is almost the only proof of life. The growth of the temple is due to the operation of the Spirit.

3. In most forms of life there is an exquisite symmetry. We see something of it in this temple: "fitly framed together." As there is a beautiful proportion in the doctrines of the gospel, so, though God's servants are many and their gifts various, their aim is one; and through their united wisdom and love and effort, all the building groweth into a. holy temple in the Lord.

III. THE TEMPLE CONSECRATED.

1. We may refer the consecration to the end of the age, because consecration usually follows upon completion.

2. But even now there is to a certain extent a consecration of this building (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:16). How shall I know this?

(1) By self-consecration. Yield yourselves unto God (Romans 6:13), not simply your brain, pen, money, influence, but "yourselves." God wants the man — the whole man.

(2) By God-consecration. He who gives himself to God will surely find God giving Himself to him, consecrating His temple by His presence, and indicating that presence by holy aspirations and a Christ-like disposition, by meekness and gentleness, by self-denial and zeal. He who is spirit taught and spirit wrought will be such a temple as the great God of heaven will not despise.

(W. J. Chapman, M. A.)

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KJV: And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

WEB: being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;