p. 4 | Building for Eternity by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1909

Building for Eternity

By C. M. S.

JESUS CHRIST, the carpenter of Nazareth, was more than a builder of structures of stone and wood, which time and the elements must harry into ruin. The temporal structures upon which he wrought in Palestine have crumbled into decay. But there are buildings in every nation of the world to-day, fashioned by the hand and eye of Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth for a time, but the architect of more enduring structures that are to give glory to his name throughout eternity.

These are not made of wood or stone, or thatched with straw—they are temples of God, characters fashioned by the Word of God. That is the kind of building Christ came into the world pre-eminently to do. When we look at that work and see its eternal possibilities, how insignificant appear the relics of temporal things whose beauty and whose very form have tarnished and crumbled with time!

Paul declares: “We are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them.” 2 Cor. 6:16. But Christ is the builder and the beautifier of that temple. Man's efforts in that direction will avail nothing without the direction and help of him who builds the spiritual temple of the soul for the dwelling-place of its Maker. Into that temple there can nothing enter that is unclean, unlovely, transitory. Eternity is to be stamped on every stone that is to enter this age-abiding temple. Therefore the apostle declares again: “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3:17.

In many lands there stand to-day relics of the temples builded by the hand of man for the worship of idols, or for the glory of man. But these crumbling relics are giving mute testimony to the truth that all things that have not upon them the stamp of righteousness must pass away. All lustings after the things of this world, all the yieldings to the flesh, all the practises whose trend is earthward, are defilements, whose tendency is to destroy what God designed should be a temple fitted to endure. When that work has gone on and on till the work of defilement is complete, God will pronounce upon it the decree of everlasting destruction, and it will crumble into ruin, as have all the heathen temples of old where God was mocked and souls polluted. Christ drove out from the Hebrew temple those who were making merchandise of it and its sacred mission, doing the work of defilement. But afterward that work went on as before, until even he whose dwelling-place it was meant to be was slain by its trustees, and the veil was rent, and final destruction came, swift, sudden, and complete. That was a type of the end of all those who continue in the work of defiling the temple of this body, or who, having been cleansed by the power of his Word, have again embraced the ways and deeds that dishonor and defile. Verily, “him shall God destroy.”

But having sought the better way, having yielded to the purifying and edifying process of God, He begins the work of fitting up there a temple for the indwelling of his presence. Then the work of ruin and annihilation ceases, and the work of building for eternity begins—not with dead stones and dying timbers, not with perishable material; but as the apostle says, “Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house” upon that “living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.”

And this is not done with us in the way that we work upon lifeless, unresponsive material: “for we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry; ye are God's building.” 1 Cor. 3:9. “In whom [Christ] 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.” Eph. 2:21, 22. “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith.” Col. 2:7. Of that building Jesus Christ himself is the corner-stone. His righteousness upon it is the stamp, the seal, of its eternal endurance. Of that work there will be found no relics, no symbols of a greater glory and a greater work sunk into decay. But through and around and over that structure will breathe from age to age the living breath of eternal spring, the fragrance of undying

flowers. Within its walls will ring to all eternity the jubilee bells of glad release from the tyranny of sin.

God has given to every soul the opportunity of building for eternity. It is the privilege of all to be fashioned by the hand of the Master Builder into that which will endure, to be a living stone built upon Christ in the glorious spiritual temple structure of God. To go out of that temple would mean death; so of the one who becomes a stone, a pillar, in that temple it is declared, “He shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” Sealed with that seal, clothed with his righteousness, the victory over death and decay is accomplished forever, and the relics of time and sin will be seen no more. Let us, with God's help, so build that we may become a part of that enduring edifice.

C. M. S.