" The habit, unyieldingly persisted in, of doing everything
with the most scrupulous conscientiousness, builds up in the one who so
lives a noble and beautiful character.
CHAPTER XIII.
WITHOUT AXE OR HAMMER.
"Souls are built as temples are,--
Based on truth's eternal law,
Sure and steadfast, without flaw,
Through the sunshine, through the snows,
Up and on the building goes;
Every fair thing finds its place,
Every hard thing lends a grace,
Every hand may make or mar."
We read of the temple of Solomon, when it was in building, that it was
built of stone made ready in the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe
nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it went up.
"No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm, the noiseless fabric sprung."
So it is that the great work of spiritual temple-building goes on
continually in this world. We are all really silent builders. The
kingdom of God cometh not with observation. The divine Spirit works in
silence, changing men's hearts, transforming lives, comforting sorrow,
kindling hope in darkened bosoms, washing scarlet souls white as snow.
The preacher may speak with the voice of a Boanerges, but the power
that reaches hearts is not the preacher's noise; silently the divine
voice whispers in the soul its secret of conviction, or of hope, or of
strength.
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