The Church’s One Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:11

Samuel John Stone

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The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
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she is his new creation by water and the Word.
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From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride;
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with his own blood he bought her, and for her life he died.

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Elect from every nation, yet one o’er all the earth;
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her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth.
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One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
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and to one hope she presses, with every grace endued.

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Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed,
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by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed,
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yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, “How long?”
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And soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

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Yet she on earth has union with God the Three in One,
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and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won:
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O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we,
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like them, the meek and lowly, may live eternally.