By Caleb Faires
Rudyard Kipling, inspired by Samuel Stone’s “The Church’s One Foundation,” wrote a hymn of his own called “Hymn Before Action.” It can be sung to the same tune, but I must warn you that its content is radically different from Stone’s. Kipling invokes God’s aid to support blatantly imperial aims.
Kipling’s message may hit a little closer to home than we’d like to admit. Have you ever sought God’s help for something that was really just a selfish wish? I have. We are naturally inclined to think opportunistically of our relationship with God. We have our own ideas about what we want and how God should help us fulfill our wishes. I am grateful that God is both faithful and gracious, dealing patiently even with my presumptuous and petty ways.
Unlike Kipling, Stone’s theme is not about the imperial aims of man, but the kingdom of God. It is part of a series of hymns which expound on the declarations of the Apostle’s Creed. In this hymn, Stone addresses the theme of the Church universal, and the communion of the saints.
This hymn is a reminder of what our forgetful hearts need to hear again and again: Christ is our all. He is the one foundation.
How often we build our lives on false hopes, false foundations, and the lure of worldly success. We seek to build the church on false visions of success—like size, numbers, facilities, and programs—while neglecting the preeminence of Christ. Our hearts are inclined to supplant Jesus and replace Him with our own designs.
It is precisely this “do-it-yourself” kind of faith that Christ confounds. Psalm 127:1 says, “Except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” I think I read this verse over a thousand times before I noticed that God Himself was the builder. Somehow, I always read this and thought it meant that I should build on my own, after getting some architectural direction from God.
That’s not what the verse says. God is the builder. He has established the church. He builds it. And my communion with Him and with the saints is not rooted in what I have done, but in what He has done. Indeed, Peter declares that we are “living Stones” (1 Peter 2:5). Our chief duty is to rest in Christ and rest upon the foundation He has laid.
Any activity we invest in that is not fixed upon Christ is vanity. Any program we concoct, any relationship we foster, any prayer we utter is vain labor apart from Him.
Stone reminds us that only in Christ do we find peace, sustenance, hope, joy, life, beauty, glory, reconciliation, love, salvation, identity, comfort, endurance, strength, and grace. Christ alone fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23).
Written By Caleb Faires
The Church’s One Foundation
Samuel J. Stone, 1866
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.
She is 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,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!
For an added layer of worship during reading plan, we’ve created a Spotify playlist for Hymns! You can find the complete HRT Hymns Playlist here, or listen to the first track on the player below. Enjoy!
145 thoughts on "The Church’s One Foundation"
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Christopher Nicolas says:
GOD is the reason we have a church and we can only grow if we depend on Jesus
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GOD bless my church and fill your spirit in all of us and let us worship you and praise you and live for you.
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Man are to be selfless and help others just like GOD helped us and we need to rely on the most high
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Father, thank you for being with our church through the ups and down. You have never foresaken us even in our sinful nature. Bless us lord and show us what we must do to grow more intimate with you GOD . In Jesus name, amen.
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Zac Runyon says:
Man is foolish, and neglects our creator.
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God is truly our sustenance for all things. Our All in all has offered us His grace, and foolishly we neglect it. Thankfully, God’s nature forgives us each day, knowing our flesh, and gratefully continues to welcome us with open arms.
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I will begin to be more foreword with my faith, casually mentioning my church going desires- throwing scripture into advice, and being more prayerful than normal.
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The Gospel is our reason to live, our insight to be sanctified. Our motivation to live as Christ did.
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I will pray for strength, health, and a light that shines through myself onto others- so that all may see Christ.
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Evan Tinklenberg says:
We are not alone. And we are not fully who we were created to be when we are alone. Man has been created for community, for communion with God and with one another as creatures of God. Yet we in our sinful rebellion against God often choose selfishness over community, and to overcome this tendency we need the grace and mercy of God in Christ, as well as the Holy Spirit of Christ in us to change us utterly.
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The Gospel is more than just good news to me; it is good news for billions of those whom God has called! God saves us personally, yes, but He saves us into a community which is the body of Jesus Christ himself!
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God is a triune community, and He does not call to Himself mere individuals. Rather, He calls, redeems, sanctifies, and sustains a people for Himself, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God also reveals Himself to be gracious in the act of creating a community for Himself; He knows that we are apt to wander away from Him when we rely on our own strength, and “he places the poor in families”, as the Psalmist says, a gracious showing of His love for us.
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I will respond in love towards my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I will give my whole life to the Church; to gathering more people in so that more can be sent. In doing this I am acting, through the Holy Spirit, in line with the behavior of the divine community, as the people of God continue to grow.
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…
I give you thanks that in Christ the Church is perfectly loved, and in Christ you have revealed that deep love which led our Lord to the cross. Thank you that you have purchased with your own blood a people for yourself, and you are working by your Holy Spirit to make us more like you. I pray, O Lord, with all the saints throughout history, that you would come soon, and that your Church would be the beautiful bride that you are making us into.
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Geoffrey Belk says:
This teaches by certain that God is our foundation and nothing we do without him is gonna stand. Anything we do or say without Him as our foundation is vanity.
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The Gospel is always true. It is the true and loving word of God. With God as our foundation the gospel will be blessed as we do our work as he provides. The gospel is our direction of example.
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This teaches us that man does so many thing in vanity. We think we can do it on our own and it only leads to failure with Him against the beginning.
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I will try to empty myself of things so that HE can fill me with His Spirit. This will keep at the foundation of my thinking, and skiing of anything. In my working, talking, socializing.
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Lord, I pray that you will always push things in front of me that are only if you. Your purpose you direction. From the words of a song. Lord empty me so that I can be filled with you. Help me make you the foundation in my home, family and relationships.
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Austin Helsel says:
This teaches me that God thinks of his church as wife with no wrinkles are spots and nothing to look at and say how bad it looks, this also teaches me about a different way I can look at God how Jesus his head is looking down on us like a head does and his body but the rest of him is the church itself
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