2 Chronicles 2:18

REFLECTIONS

IN the view here given of Solomon's temple, the workmen, and the materials taken and gathered from afar, I would contemplate how Solomon, my God and King, hath gathered the workmen and materials for his Temple, from all the varieties of the earth. When the Lord gave the word, great was the company of the preachers. Thou hast called patriarchs, prophets, and apostles: thou hast taken thy workmen from among the lowest, even the outcasts of the world. And now, Lord, when called, and gathered, and collected, and brought to thy Jerusalem to form thy church below; founded on thyself, thou Chief Corner Stone, how are they like polished stones of the temple, closely joined in Jesus, and formed for an habitation of God, through the Spirit. Are they not the household of faith? Are they not as a spiritual house to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ! And when, by and by, thou shalt remove the whole building to constitute thy temple above, how will they all appear before thee in glory! Blessed Lord! give my soul to see in those outer things, the shadow of those good things which are yet to come. Make me, however low and humble the lot assigned may be, a builder in thine house. Cause me to rest wholly my salvation, and all my hopes upon that elect, precious Corner Stone, which God hath laid in Zion; that all my strength, faith, and gospel conversation may be on Jesus, in Jesus, and of Jesus: perfectly and unalterably convinced, that other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Here, Lord, would I rest, and here would I be found knowing that he that thus buildeth, and thus liveth, and thus dieth, shall never be ashamed nor confounded, world without end.