and careers of the patriarchs and their descendants, and of the holy apostles. Serious meditations these profess but to be, with no pretensions whatever to profundity or infallibility; for, the precious stones may be only designed to represent by their beauty, arrangement, and diversity, the harmonious blending and variety of divine graces in the soul formed anew after the image of Christ.

"And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."

The First Foundation was:

Jesus Christ.

The Corner Stone.

Salvation.

“Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation."

HE figure of a Rock or Stone is repeatedly employed throughout the Holy Scriptures, whenever it is requisite to express vast strength, indestructibility, or firmness. We

can conceive of no more forcible symbol of durability than a massive, mighty rock, which has withstood the shocks of the fierce tornado, and the corroding influences of centuries. And hence is God the Son often, both by the inspired writers and by himself, likened unto one, because He has endured unscathed the brunt of ages, and stood immovable against the terrible threefold ordeal of Heaven, of Earth, and of Hell. He suffered the righteous indignation of Heaven for the accumulated sins of the whole world which He had voluntarily assumed; He endured the ingratitude and malice of foolish

Men who disowned their Deliverer from wrath divine; and He met undaunted the demoniac fury of Hell with its legions of myrmidons, crushed its power forever, sheltered within His cleft side its longed-for prey, and triumphed gloriously over all, the Mighty Conqueror!

But He, the Saviour, is more frequently alluded to under the metaphor of a corner-stone-the most essential prop or pillar of a building. Christ, as the corner-stone of His Church, is not only a solid block of living-stone at the base of the structure; He is incorporated with it, and arising with it, stands exalted in towering glory at the head of the corner; and from the very summit of the edifice, issues His loving summons: "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price!" Thus is it He becomes "the head of the body, the Church.”

"He is called (says Kelly), a precious stone, by a metaphor taken from gems and stones of great value. Ten thousand times more precious than that natural diamond rock on which an ancient castle once in England stood-now in deplorable ruins; whereas this Rock of Ages shall never behold corruption: more precious, indeed! as being

of a supernatural essence, and cut out of the mountain of eternity, without hands, in respect of His divine nature, which is free from the least shadow of a flaw, or any tincture of blemish-shining most oriently with all the sparklings of divine perfections. Precious is this stone on account of its admirable qualities, and most efficacious virtues, infinitely beyond the force and power of the famous hæmatites, for staunching the bleeding. wounds of our souls, which would have bled to death through the gashes received in Paradise, had not virtue issued from Christ for their restraint. Beyond the fiery carbuncle in resisting the flames of His Father's wrath, that are ready to devour the vital spirits of wretched sinners, who dare presume to draw nigh to this consuming fire without Christ, or converse with such everlasting burnings. Beyond the attractive virtue of the magnetical stone in the drawing of souls after Him, and alluring them into union and communion with himself. Nay, more precious than the impenetrable adamant, whereof some ancients report such a quality to be inherent in it that those who carry it about them, shall prove valiant in fight and unconquerable in their enterprises. Thus we are made more than conquerors through Him that loved us, by whose means it is

that we receive the victory, when fighting under the banner of this heavenly Achilles, who, being himself animated with a more precious unction than his, of ambrosia from above, is in every part invulnerable, except His heel, which for awhile is bruised in His poor members militant upon the earth, till all His enemies be subdued under His feet in the behalf of His dear church.

"Besides, He is a most precious stone, by reason of His incomparable rarity; there being but one of this nature found in the whole world. Who would not turn a spiritual merchant, and selling all that he hath, endeavor to purchase this inestimable treasure? This is that stone, says holy Peter, on which only our salvation resteth. There being no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, than that new name engraven on this white stone, the Lord our Righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only sun, which, by His bright and fulgent rays, dispels the darkness of the chambers of death, and of the bottomless pit. He is the only Phoenix, out of whose perfumed ashes doth arise the curiously plumed progeny of the church, whose wings are covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold. This is the only stone, the Rock of Ages so pre