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Our text brings before us a period long antecedent to the creation of man, when the first step was taken towards building up and furnishing this planet for the abode of its future inhabitants. The text brings before us the truth in a parable. The transactions of another sphere are represented in an image drawn from this, in order that our conceptions of the truth may be lively and intelligent. These parables are no mere plays of the fancy — they are founded upon real analogies. Earthly things are really a shadow of heavenly things. The ways of nature are a real type of the ways of grace. The dealings of men with one another are really and objectively a figure of God's dealings with man. God here sets forth heavenly transactions under a figure, drawn from the laying of a foundation stone. To lay the first stone of a great building is in itself, however auspicious, a solemn event. The structure, whose foundations we are laying, will witness a great fluctuation of human interests, and be associated with some great and critical event, Suppose that the building be dedicated to the edification of man, or to the worship of the Most High God — a great seminary, for example, or a great church. Here our feelings of solemnity and awe would be far more largely tempered with joy. There is ground for rejoicing, inasmuch as the good which may reasonably be expected to result from the work which we are inaugurating, so vastly preponderates over the evil, which may be accidentally associated with it. The text carries us back to a period of thought, antecedent to the creation of man — to the period when the first substratum of the globe was laid — to the period, when by the operation of laws. which it has taken man upwards of five thousand years to discover, this planet was poised in mid-air — a little ball in the midst of suns and systems innumerable, with infinite space stretching round it on all sides. Man existed not yet, nor the place of his habitation; but that intelligent and rational creatures existed, our text itself furnishes sufficient proof...Angels assisting at the foundation of the earth, and sending forth God's high praises in jubilant strains of triumph — it is a grand subject of meditation. What were the grounds for their solemn rejoicing? Their knowledge of the earth's destiny could not have been of a prophetic character. The earth might be regarded by them in reference either to its future inhabitants, or to God, or to the evil which had already found its way into the universe.

I. ITS FUTURE INHABITANTS. It was to be the house of a great family, and the school of a great character.

1. It was designed for the abode of a race, and not merely of those two individuals who were first placed in solitude and innocence upon it; and the destinies of that race, as of the individuals composing it, would fluctuate.

2. It was to be the school of human character. Earth was to be a scene of probation and discipline. The creature who was to be formed upon it was to be susceptible of improvement and progress. If the creature have capacities for the infinite, while the sphere on which it moves is finite, this must prove that the sphere is only preparatory — an introduction to a higher stage.

II. TO GOD. Earth was destined to be a temple of God, from every corner of which should ascend to Him continually the incense of praise — where He should signally manifest His glory, and develop His perfections.

III. TO THE STRIFE WITH EVIL. Man should become a sinner, and alienate himself from God. Then arose this difficulty — How was this moral mischief to be repaired?

(E. M. Goulburn, D. C. L.)

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KJV: Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

WEB: Whereupon were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,