p. 179 | Building for Eternity by H. W. Beecher

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1872

Building for Eternity.

By H. W. Beecher

You think that one hour buries another; but it is not so. You think that you have parted forever from the things which have passed by you. No, you have not. There is much in your life that you think has gone which you never shall part from. It has stepped behind you; and there it waits. That which you have done is with you to-day; and that which you are doing will be with you to-morrow. When the mason carries up the wall, the course of brick which he laid yesterday is the foundation on which he is laying another course to-day. And all that you do to-day on the structure which you are building will remain as a basis for that which you do to-morrow. The work proceeds without intermission; and all that has been done is the under-structure for that which is to be done.

Young man and maiden, take heed how you build. That which you are doing, the work which you are performing, you do not leave behind you because you forget it. It passes away from you apparently, but it does not pass away from you in reality. Every stroke, every single element, abides. And there is nothing that grows as fast as character. There is nothing that is so enduring as character. There is nothing that men think so little of as character, although there is nothing that so belongs to their immortality, and that is so incomparable in importance, as character.—H. W. Beecher.