tual rock that will follow us, and that Rock is Christ. In every
place call upon His name, and every place will be a house of God, and
a gate of heaven to our waiting souls.

PERISHING OR BEING SAVED

'For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish
foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power
of God.'--1 COR. i. 18.

The starting-point of my remarks is the observation that a slight
variation of rendering, which will be found in the Revised Version,
brings out the true meaning of these words. Instead of reading 'them
that perish' and 'us which are saved,' we ought to read 'them that
_are perishing_,' and 'us which _are being_ saved.' That is to say,
the Apostle represents the two contrasted conditions, not so much as
fixed states, either present or future, but rather as processes which
are going on, and are manifestly, in the present, incomplete. That
opens some very solemn and intensely practical considerations.

Then I may further note that this antithesis includes the whole of
the persons to whom the Gospel is preached. In one or other of these
two classes they all stand. Further, we have to observe that the
consideration which determines the class to which men belong, is the
attitude which they respectively take to the preaching of the Cross.
If it be, and because it is, 'foolishness' to some, they belong to
the catalogue of the perishing. If it be, and because it is, 'the
power of God' to others, they belong to the class of those who are in
process of being saved.

So, then, we have the ground cleared for two or three very simple,
but, as it seems to me, very important thoughts.

I. I desire, first, to look at the two contrasted conditions,
'perishing' and 'being saved.'

Now we shall best, I think, understand the force of the darker of
these two terms if we first ask what is the force of the brighter and
more radiant. If we understand what the Apostle means by 'saving' and
'salvation' we shall understand also what he means by 'perishing.'

If, then, we turn for a moment to Scripture analogy and teaching, we
find that that threadbare word 'salvation,' which we all take it for
granted that we understand, and which, like a well-worn coin, has
been so passed from hand to hand that it scarcely remains
legible--that well-worn word 'salvation' starts from a double
metaphorical meaning. It means either--and is used for both--being
healed or being made safe. In the one sense it