are sure to
result in the growth of the individual soul and of the collective
community. That divine Spirit dwells in and works through every
believing soul, and while it is possible to grieve and to quench It, to
resist and even to neutralise Its workings, these are the true sources
of all our growth in grace and knowledge. The process of building may be
and will be slow. Sometimes lurking enemies will pull down in a night
what we have laboured at for many days. Often our hands will be slack
and our hearts will droop. We shall often be tempted to think that our
progress is so slow that it is doubtful if we have ever been on the
foundation at all or have been building at all. But 'the Spirit helpeth
our infirmities,' and the task is not ours alone but His in us. We have
to recognise that effort is inseparable from building, but we have also
to remember that growth depends on the free circulation of life, and
that if we are, and abide in, Jesus, we cannot but be built 'for an
habitation of God in the Spirit.' We may be sure that whatever may be
the gaps and shortcomings in the structures that we rear here, none will
be able to say of us at the last, 'This man began to build and was not
able to finish.'

II. The foundation on which the building rests.

In the Greek, as in our version, there is no definite article before
'prophets,' and its absence indicates that both sets of persons here
mentioned come under the common _vinculum_ of the one definite article
preceding the first named. So that apostles and prophets belong to one
class. It may be a question whether the foundation is theirs in the
sense that they constitute it, an explanation in favour of which can be
quoted the vision in the Apocalypse of the new Jerusalem, in the twelve
foundations of which were written the names of the twelve apostles of
the Lamb, or whether, as is more probable, the foundation is conceived
of as laid by them. In like manner the Apostle speaks to the Corinthians
of having 'as a wise master-builder laid the foundation,' and to the
Romans of making it his aim to preach especially where Christ was not
already named, that he might 'not build upon another man's foundation.'
Following these indications, it seems best to understand the preaching
of the Gospel as being the laying of the foundation.

Further, the question may be raised whether the prophets here mentioned
belong to the Old Testament or to the New. The latter alternative has
been