The Church’s One Foundation
The Church’s One Foundation
The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the word.
From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.
Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.
Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.
Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.
WINDSOR on the Thames, with its royal castle, is one of England’s most popular tourist attractions. Samuel Stone’s ministry was located here, among the poorer people at the outskirts of town.
Samuel Stone was a fighter. He stood up for what he believed, and if local “toughs” threatened the neighborhood, he was not afraid to take them on. In the Church of England, Stone was regarded as a fundamentalist, opposing the liberal theological tendencies of his day. When he was twenty-seven, he wrote a collection of hymns based on the Apostles’ Creed. This hymn, taken from that collection, is based on the article in the Creed regarding the church as the body of Christ.
Two years later, Anglicans from around the world met to discuss the crucial theological issues that were raging in the church. Significantly, they chose Stone’s hymn as the processional for their historic conference.
Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
Ephesians 2:20
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