The Church of God is spoken of sometimes as on earth, sometimes as in heaven. Let us take it in its entirety. The real end for which God hath chosen us in Christ Jesus before the world began, and fitted us on earth by His providential dispensations, is, " that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him."
This recapitulation of all things in Christ is to be effected by building all things on Christ as the sure foundation which God Himself has laid in Zion ; and Christians, as living stones chosen of God and precious, are, in the language of St. Paul, built upon the foundation of the apostles, " in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." This structure the same apostle designates in another place as " a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
The spiritual temple will in its day of completion be far nobler than that of Solomon. It will never be pillaged, as that was when Shishak, king of Egypt, came and took away its treasures — for of the unseen temple it is said no thief can break through and steal. It will never be polluted, as Zion's Temple was by the wickedness of Manasseh — because " there shall in no wise enter into it any- thing that defileth, neither worketh abomination." And it can never be destroyed, as Solomon's was when Nebuzaradan burnt the House of the Lord — for it is built of living stones which can never perish.
^ S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Home Ideals, 236.
I KINGS VT. 7 397
1, Now notice that for the building of the Church of God hewers are needed as well as builders.
(1) The building of the Temple of God is largely unseen work. Most of the work of Solomon's Temple was done where it would not show for much. Workmen were in the quarry cutting and shaping those stupendous stones whose size is still the wonder of the world, and whose accuracy of fit is so exquisite that the blade of a knife can hardly be inserted between them. Other labourers in the plain between Succoth and Zarthan were forming clay moulds in which the molten metal might be shaped. Others were away in the forest of Lebanon, where axes were ringing, and giant trees were falling. Others, again, brought these down as lumber, some bearing burdens, and others placing the rollers on which the heavy masses of wood and stone were brought to their appointed places. The worshippers in the completed Temple probably never saw these men ; their names v/ere unknown to them as to us. Their work was like that of the sculptors of those marble figures which adorn the roof of Milan Cathedral, or like that of the carvers of stonework in the marvellous roof of King's College Chapel, Cambridge — splendid work done by unknown workers.
^ My guide and friend took me round the north-eastern angle of the Temple area and by the wall till nearly opposite the well- known gate of Jeremiah — a hundred paces from the gate through which Stephen passed to die, two or three hundred yards at most from that " Green hill far away, without a city wall," which is, even to-day, in shape so " like a skull." He stopped close beside the wall that Saladin built — " You see that hole in the eaxth ? A wounded partridge was the means of its discovery a few months ago. Follow me i " We entered a long sloping gallery that led, or seemed to lead, right under the city walls in the direction of the Temple. Right and left, as the lamps flared and showed us the vast caverns, we saw evidences of the masons who had chipped their stones to size, detached them from their bed in the quarry, and worked them and tooled them into squares. Deeper and further we went into the cool darkness. Our guide put up his torch and showed us little nicks or niches in the still upstanding blocks, blackened with soot. " You know what those were for ? " he said. " Those were the niches hewn out by the men of Hiram and Solomon of old time, on which to place their little earthen lamps while they laboured at the stone." ^
^ H. D. Rawnsley.
398 HEWING AND BUILDING
^ I believe that much of the best work accomplished for the world, and for the Church, is never seen or heard of at the time. But the Lord is mindful of His own; He remembereth His children. And if He sent His angel to show us where true and lasting service is being done, possibly He would not lead us to magnificent buildings, or to stately worship, or to popular preaching. Perhaps He would draw aside the veil which hides a Christian home, and show us a mother patient with her wayward lad, pleading with him, praying for him ; seeking by her gentle, watchful love to shape his character to true nobility, that she may present him at last as one of God's polished stones. He might show us a Christian going up the creaking staircase to some wretched attic, where a smile lights up the face of a dying man to whom the visitor speaks of a Saviour who is loving and of a heaven that is near. In that foul miserable room rests the foot of the ladder whose top is in heaven. Or possibly the angel might point us to a writer for the press, working far into the night, pale and tired, but penning words which will affect the world on the morrow — turning men from the love of war, rebuking iniquity in high places, and preparing the nation to choose the ways of righteousness, liberty, peace, and love.^