The Church: Its Organization, Order and Discipline

The Tried Stone

“Our Redeemer is a ‘tried stone.’ The experiment has been made, the great test has been applied, and with perfect success. In him is fulfilled all the purpose of God for the saving of a lost world. Never was a foundation subject to so severe a trial and test as this ‘Tried Stone.’ The Lord Jehovah knew that this foundation stone could sustain. The sins of the whole could be piled upon it. The Lord’s chosen were to be revealed, heaven’s gates to be thrown open to all who would believe; its untold glories were to be given to the overcomers. COOD 12.2

“A ‘Tried Stone’ is Christ, tried by the perversity of man. Thou, O our Saviour, has taken the burden; thou has given peace and rest; thou has been tried, proved, by believers who have taken their trials to thy sympathy, their sorrows to thy love, their wounds to thy healing, their weakness to strength, their emptiness to thy fulness; and never, never, has one soul been disappointed. Jesus, my Tried Stone, to thee will I come, moment by moment. In thy presence I am lifted above pain. ‘When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I....’ COOD 12.3

“We are to be sons and daughters of God, growing into a holy temple in the Lord. ‘No more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.... Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.’ This is our privilege. How is heaven amazed at the present condition of the church that could be so much to the world were every stone, in its proper place, a living stone to emit light. The stone that does not shine is worthless. That which constitutes the value of our churches in not dead, lusterless stones; but living stones, stones that catch the bright beams for the chief corner-stone, even from the sun of righteousness,-the bright glory in which are combined the beams of mercy and truth, that have met together, of righteousness and peace that have kissed each other.”-Mrs. E. G. White, in Review of March 19, 1895. COOD 12.4