^ S, D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 214. » F. "W. Robertson, Life cmd Letters, 209.
I KINGS VI. 7 401
there are in similar undertakings to-day. The reason why " there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building," was because for days and weeks and months beforehand there had been incessant noise, untiring toil, infinite and undiscouraged pounding and smoothing and planing and hammering almost night and day. And do you suppose there was nothing more ? The men who built the Temple were not angels, but children of a race trained by long bondage to the chain and the lash. Pharaoh's taskmasters had beaten them when the tale of bricks was short. Is it likely that Solomon's taskmasters were persons of such pre-eminent gentle- ness and infinite patience that they never struck a blow or spoke a harsh word ? If we could have the unwritten history of that splendid building I presume we should find that its stones were moistened more than once with the salt tears of workmen who had always done their best, or who, striving to do it, had not always and instantly achieved the best result. This huge task was not accomplished without cost; and here, as always in the achievement of any great work, the costliest expenditure was not in money, but in human sweat and in human sorrow.
Your tears unheeded, and your prayers made nought, Thus and no otherwise through all have wrought. That if, the while ye toiled and sorrowed most The sound of your lamenting seemed all lost, And from my land no answer came again. It was because of that your care and pain A house was building, and your bitter sighs Came hither as toil-helping melodies. And in the mortar of our gem-built wall Your tears are mingleid mid the rise and fall Of golden trowels tinkling in the hands Of builders gathered wide from all the lands. — — Is the house finished? Nay, come help to build Walls that the sun of sorrow once did gild Through many a bitter morn and hopeless eve, That so at last in bliss ye may believe; Then rest with me, and turn no more to tears. For then no more by days and months and years. By hours of pain come back, and joy passed o'er We measure time that was — and is no more.^
' William Morris. DEUT.-ESTH. — 26
402 HEWING AND BUILDING
2. But more especially we are expected to observe how silently the building proceeds. The silence amid which the building of Solomon's Temple was carried on was partly due to the reverential feeling in which that holy work was undertaken. The deepest emotions in the human heart are generally the quietest. Our pro- founder feelings shrink from babble and noise. If we stand before a masterpiece of art and try to take in the harmonies of colour, or the symmetry of form, the frivolous remarks of a companion distress us. If we walk in the depths of a forest glade, or if we delight our eyes with the falling of gleams and of shadows upon the sward till we are lost in a pleasant day-dream, an incursion of jocund excursionists is resented as being almost a sacrilege. If we have to say farewell to friends we love, and the hour of parting, long-dreaded, has come at last, we feel that it is not a time for fluent talk, or for sparkling fun, but rather for the silent grip of the hand and the tearful " God bless you ! " And when we enter some stately cathedral, rich in solemn associations, it is natural that we should be hushed and quiet.
Thus the rearing of the Temple is not so much an example for literal imitation as it is a prophecy of ultimate realization. There must have been a reason for that peculiar and exceptional method of building which was adopted in the case of the Temple, and that reason must have been a Divine one. It did not occur to this semi-barbarous people to build the Temple in this way. The method was revealed to them. What was its reason ? Doubtless, in the first place, to educate a race with imperfect ideas of reverence into a higher conception of the sacredness of Divine things. The average Jew entered the Temple with a deeper awe when he remembered the august sanctities with which its erection had been hedged about.
In silence mighty things are wrought, — Silently builded, thought on thought,
Truth's temple greets the sky; And like a citadel with towers. The soul with her subservient powers
Is strengthened silently.
Soundless as chariots on the snov/ The saplings of the forest grow To trees of mighty girth;
I KINGS VI. 7 403
Each nightly star in silence burns. And every day in silence turns The axle of the earth.
The silent frost with mighty hand Fetters the rivers and the land
With universal chain ; And smitten by the silent sun, The chain is loosed, the rivers run,
The lands are free again.
O Source unseen of life and light. Thy secrecy of silent might
If we in bondage know, Our hearts, like seeds beneath the ground, By silent force of life unbound,
Move upwards from below.