'Tis the Master who holds the chisel;
He knows just where Its edge should be driven sharpest
To fashion there The semblance that He is carving;
Nor will He let One delicate stroke too many
Or few be set On forehead, or cheek, where only
He sees how all Is tending — and where the hardest
The blow should fall ^ G. Matheson.
I KINGS VI. 7 387
V/hich crumbles away whatever
Superfluous line Would hinder His hand from making
The work divine.
With tools of Thy choosing, Master,
We pray Thee, then, Strike just as Thou wilt ; as often,
And where, and when The vehement stroke is needed.
I will not mind, If only Thy chipping chisel
Shall leave behind Such marks of Thy wondrous working
And loving skill Clear carven on aspect, stature,
And face, as will, When discipline's ends are over,
Have all sufiSced To mould me into the likeness
And form of Christ.
5. Three processes are mentioned here through which the living stones pass to be prepared for their place in the House.
(1) First, there is the process of testing. There were thousands of stones in the distant quarries that had been tried and cast back into the pile of refuse — s.ome that had been tried and tried again a,nd at last cast aside, having proved unworthy of a place in the Temple.
^ One of the most awfully serious views of life to me is that each one of us is being constantly tested and proved, that we are every day revealing ourselves, disclosing what there is in us to God and the universe. We are every hour, as it were, under His hammer. He tries us, proves us, to see whether we are fit and willing to be prepared for the eternal temple, or fit only to be cast away for ever with the trash, the rubbish, the sweepings of the world.^
^ Even in our surface worldly-wise opinions, which float lightly on the stream of thought, we admit much of this. We admit that the test of faith in anything is willingness to suffer. The test of courage is v/hen a real occasion calls for it. The test of patriotism is readiness to make sacrifice for country. Lukewarm
^ E. H. Evans.
388 HEWING AND BUILDING
adherence to a party or a cause is a source of weakness. All the fighting has to be done by men of other mould. When victory in anything is assured, there are plenty of brazen throats to scream hallelujah and brazen brows seeking to be crowned by the laurels of triumph. The faith which costs nothing is worth nothing. It does not go deep enough. Some men, as the Scottish proverb goes, will put their hand twice to their bonnet for once to their pouch. It does not cost much to salute a man or a scheme. The test of all manner of devotion must be practical. The lady in the age of chivalry set her knight-errant to do some difficult task which he accomplished for love of her or died in the attempt. The principle is right, though the applications were often absurd.^
(2) Next, there is the preparation proper, the hewing and polishing. There were 80,000 hewers of stone and wood in the distant mountains of Lebanon, and some stones prepared for the foundations were over five yards long. When the stone was found to be sound — without a single flaw — it was then handed over to be made ready, by the hammer, the file, the saw, and the iron tools. So is it with the Christian when he has obeyed God by believing in Jesus. He has passed the first process ; he is then handed over, as it were, to be made " meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light." He receives the title to the inheritance the day he obeys and believes ; but he must be polished, sanctified, before he is "meet." And this making ready, the lopping off of the rough corners, the polishing with the tools of iron, is often a rough work, hard to bear.
We ask, under our trials, if God loves us ; now that we are His acknowledged children, why is it that He does not keep away from us the griefs and sorrows ? why the many afflictions even of the righteous ? Why ? Because this is a world of " making ready." We are here in the land of the quarries, the land of the tools of iron, the axe and the hammer, and the rasp and the file. The land where " stones are being made ready." We have all of us some rough side that needs polishing, a temper that needs smoothing down, a passion that must be lopped off. There is much work yet to do before we are ready for " the inheritance of the saints in light." We cannot be taken to the " light " until we are " made ready."
We are here to be sanctified as well as saved, and our sancti-
1 Hugh Black, Gomfort, 60.
I KINGS VI. 7 389
fication is far more important in the sight of God now than our present haiJioiness. Our heavenly Father loves us enough to keep away from us all trouble and anxiety, but He knows that if all things were made pleasant to us here, we would soon forget Him — and heaven. Those are very expressive words in the 55th Psalm, " Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." Their life here is so smooth and prosperous, they have no changes, it is always the same with them ; therefore they " fear not God."