Contributors to the, Tracts for the Times Psalm 11:3-4 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?… We have here a description of a faithful heart in time of trial declaring itself resolved to trust on God alone, when some would advise it to fly or to draw back. No man need despair; but still, when the foundations are assailed, and perhaps (humanly speaking) destroyed, it is the plain duty of believers to consider what they ought to do; to consider how they may most effectually, under God's blessing, join hands with Him in maintaining, against the world, the cause of true religion in His Church and household. If our lot is cast in times and places when and where the truth as such is slighted and set aside, it is easy to see that, so far as such opinions prevail, the foundations are destroyed. If men come to think it of small consequence whether or not they embrace and hold fast Divine truth, they will, by degrees, go on to doubt whether there is any such thing as Divine truth at all; and so, beginning with what they were pleased to call Christian liberty, they will end in unbelief. If men should be led to encourage the opinion that God's most holy Bible is to be handled, judged, criticised, praised or blamed like other books, then, beyond all doubt, however human reason may triumph, Divine faith will be undermined, and by degrees will be destroyed from its foundation. The thoughts of serious Church people are now directed to inquiry into the nature of the Christian Church and the duty of cleaving fast to it, more and more, as the world seeks to destroy its foundations. Some persons think the Church means anything, and some think it means nothing, but, at all events, it is of no great consequence what it means. Another danger is that of mistaking or slighting the great Christian doctrine of Divine grace. Whatever concerns the foundations of belief or practice concerns all Christian people as Christians. (Contributors to the "Tracts for the Times. ") Parallel Verses KJV: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?WEB: If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? |