of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:  and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not:  for it was founded upon a rock.  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:  and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell:  and great was the fall of it.”

Friends, let me say to you that each and every one of you is building a house for himself on one or the other of these foundations.  Your life, your every-day life, from beginning to end, is the house you are building.  If your life, from love to the Lord, is based upon the solid rock of his Revealed Truth, it will stand the temptations and trials symbolized by the floods and winds; but if not, it will never be able to stand, and great will be its fall.  Some may think that because God is long-suffering, and does not punish sin in this world so manifestly as he sometimes did in former times, he is becoming more merciful and takes less account of sin than formerly.  But this is a very great mistake.  God has always been quite as merciful as he could be consistently with his justice and holiness; and the warning given in Hebrews 2:2 should be heeded.  This is the warning:  “If every transgression and disobedience” under Moses, “received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” Notice this also from the same book:  “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:  of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

Again:  The children of Israel were baptized unto Moses, that is, into a visible covenant with him, in the cloud and in the Red Sea, as they passed through.  In this act of baptism, by which they declared their willingness to follow him as their leader, but the one action was required, and that action was their passing between the walls of water on the right hand and on the left hand, with the cloud overhead completely shutting them in from the world.  But the Christian, to be a true follower of the great Prophet of whom we are particularly speaking, is required to submit to a threefold baptism, which is an immersion of the body in water in the name of the Father who loved us and gave his Son; another immersion in the name of the Son who redeems and saves us; and lastly an immersion in the name of the Holy Ghost who convinces of sin, who comforts us, enlightens us as to our duties, sanctifies and makes us meet for heaven.

Again:  Moses gave the people water from the Rock.  Christ Jesus gives his people the water of life.  He says:  “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”