THE QUIET HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 November 1924, Page 14

THE QUIET HOUR.

BUILDING THE TEMPLE.

(Published by Arrangement with the Hawera Ministers’ Association.)

The erection of the Temple at Jerusalem by . King Solomon was one of the wondeßs of the world. , The king gathered gold and silver, wood and stone, needlework and scented gums and oils, and the twelve tribes of Israel were levied to provide workmen each month for its erection. Further, all the material was prepared beforehand and taken to the site ready to be put into the place marked for it. All work was marked and numbered, so that no piece was misplaced, and all woik prepared and sent forward to the builders had a place in tbe plans. The : building was not great in its size, for there is many a parish church larger than it, but its greatness lay in its symbolic construction, and its value. It took seven years to erect, it was erected in silence, and its value surpassed anything built by any other ; nation for the worship of their god. It has taught that nothing is too good in material, art,'music, and preparation for the worship of our God and Ix>rd. It also expresses to the world that religion is the important thing in life. But there is a greater message referred to in the construction and 'dedication of the Temple, and there is . the building of character. In its material, method of * construction and purpose, the Temple was a type of the building of character. Character has been described as the present intellectual, moral, social, and spiritual conditions that make up each personality. It comprehends and includes all that has been acquired, a man’s habits, his attainments, and it also indicates his tendencies, for what a man is to-day is a prophecy of what he will be like to-morrow

What a man is to-day is the result of what he selects and chooses from his opportunities. “Life is made up of opportunities, and character is made up of choices.” For a man to lose his character is to lose his best asset. A good man becomes the conscience of the society to which he belongs, and he exercises a strong influence over other men with whom he comes into contact. But this great power is latent, and Christianity is that power which calls forth that self-power in order to exercise a helpful and a hopeful influence in the world of to-day. We sometimes think of the greatness of our Empire, .but we must always remind ourselves that its greatness is not to be found in its size, but in the moral and. spiritual efficiency of its .members. Its greatness consists of the socialised energies of its individual members. Each day we live, each event we pass through, the friendships we make, the books we read, each and every event of each day, has its contribution to tbe formation of character. What we have to-day is made up of the contributions of. our fathers and forefathers. and it is our duty to make our contribution to the futiire welfare of our country and our kindred. Suppose our fathers and our forefathers could return and remove from us their contribution of what we now possess, what would our condition be ? Or, suppose that each man in each generation refused to make any contribution to the welfare of his fellow men, iu wbai condition would the world be to-day? God requires from each one a record of what he has done to make this world a better place than the man found it, and the judgment is just that demand made by God. In construction of character, as in the Temple, there must be good foundations, good .material, and faithful recognition of the plans and specifications. There must be good foundations, and we have no other foundation than that which is laid, Christ Jesus. He ’Himself likened the building of character to that of a man who either built his house on. the sand or on the rock. The day is past for a man to say: “It does not matter what a man believes.” It does matter, and what a man believes will have a marked effect on his life. Then the material used must be of the best. If character is made up of choices, then it is every man’s duty to set watch over every tliouht and word and action, in order that nothing but the best may lie recorded in each day’s transaction. God has planned for each life, and aa we advance from the Ten Commandments to the Sermon on the Mount, and from that to the life and character of Jesus Christ, so we will find that therein is our example to follow. Paul, writing to his early converts, calls upon them to examine the material they were using m the construction of their character—gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay ,and stubble. What a mixture 1 And, finally, it will cost a great deal. It will cost a great deal of self-sacrifice, of discipline, in order to make a wise choice, and to do the right. It will cost a great deal to overcome every temptation, and to hold fast to the ideals of life. It will cost much in trials, perplexities, and doubts, trials and sorrows, the conflict of interests and our own wills, but as no building worth while can be erected without cost, so the same truth applies to the building of character. “Strength comes by exercise, knowledge by learn- ’ ing, wisdom by experience, and character, by mastery.” We should strive to get all the: good we can from every experience we pass through. While Michael Angelo carved the marble blocks into beautiful statues, .lie used as his motto “As the chips fly so the image grows.” And so it is with building of character. The desire to reach a higher and yet higher altitude in life, to reach the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus is within_ every man, and our Lord recognised this when He said “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” God has set before every man a liighj.ideal. He calls each man to service in His kingdom. He requires from each man loyalty to the standard of life He has laid down in Christ and this ideal is not impossible for ns to attain. The saints of old have shown iis the way, and its possibilities. The poet Lowell has expressed the same thought in another wav when lie wrote: “Be noble, and the nobleness that lies in other men Sleeping, hut never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”