THE GLORY OF BUILDINGS by X.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 27, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 39.

THE GLORY OF BUILDINGS.

By X.

FROM the years 1627 to 1658 there reigned in India Shah Jehan. He was the oldest son and successor of Selim, who assumed the lofty title of Jahangir, the "conqueror of the world." On taking the throne he put all possible heirs to death save himself and sons. Near the close of his reign his debauched life brought on a sudden severe illness, and he was reported dead. His four sons went to war for the throne. Three were killed. The third was successful. He kept his father imprisoned at Agra till the day of his death, in 1666.

IT was at Agra that Shah Jehan erected the famous mausoleum, Taj Mahal ("Gem of buildings"), for his favorite wife, Empress Arjamund, known as Mumtaz-i-Mahal, corrupted into Taj Mahal, the "exalted one of the harem." The Taj Mahal palace is said to be "the most beautiful the world has ever possessed."

HERE is a brief description of it as given in the "Century Cyclopedia:" "It stands on a platform of white marble 18 feet high and 313 feet square, with tapering cylindrical minarets 133 feet high at the angles. The mausoleum itself is in plan 186 feet square, with the corners cut off; it consists without of two tiers of keel-shaped arches with a great single-arched porch in the middle of each side. The structure is crowned by a pointed and slightly bulbous dome, 58 feet in diameter, and about 210 in exterior height, flanked by four octagonal kiosks. The interior is occupied by four domed chambers in the corners, and a large arcaded octagon in the middle, all connected by corridors. In the central chamber stand two cenotaphs, inclosed by a remarkable open-work rail in marble. No light is admitted to the interior, except through the delicately-pierced marble screens, which fill all the windows. The decoration is enriched by admirable Mosaic inlaying in stone of flower motives and arabesques, much of it in agate, blood-stone, and jasper."

So MUCH man builds for pure sensual affection, lust, and pride, and death. But its glory is only outward. It will sometime crumble and decay, even as did the fair form of the favorite empress enshrined therein. It is of the earth, earthy. It has no more value than millions of meaner buildings, save as a work of beauty, beauty that crumbles to dust.

THERE are many lessons to us all, one of which is that it is possible for every sentient soul to erect a grander, more beautiful temple, which will endure forever. The glory of the Taj Mahal was wholly in form and surface; but the glory of our possible temple is inward, growing, developing, enlarging, glorifying, to all eternity. This is the temple of holy character, which God would build in each of us, which He will build in every soul yielded to Him.

THE foundation of that structure is the Rock Christ Jesus, the same foundation on which the prophets and apostles were builded. Luke 6:47, 48; 1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20. Its superstructure is the living Word of God, inwrought by faith into every motive, principle, action, and fiber of life. Acts 20:32. And, thus building on the Rock Christ Jesus, feeding, growing upon His Word, we become "rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, abounding therein with thanksgiving."

He who is established in God will endure forever.

TO BRING the lesson closer still: our bodies are temples "of the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. 6:19. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" Many do not know it; for the rightful Temple-dweller has been refused admittance. Yet God in the beginning designed to make man His eternal dwelling-place. How beautiful and glorious was that temple, which Infinite Wisdom pronounced, "Very good"! But God was shut out by the temple-keeper, and the enemy was given welcome. Man sold the beautiful dwelling to the despoiler; and his evil work is everywhere manifest. And yet, even now, how many beautiful human forms there are, despite sin's work! Man created and embellished the Taj Mahal. But its beauty is cold and dead. God made living man in His own glorious image. Satan and man marred God's handiwork, yet, even now, "fearfully and wonderfully made." Man is more than cold marble. God has, by an eternal sacrifice, bought back the marred and distorted image, such a disgrace to His universe. And the great Architect proposes to every soul which will yield to Him to take the ruins of this wonderful temple

and rebuild it into His own divine image, and make it "to the praise of the glory of His grace," to all eternity.

THE Taj Mahal stands to the praise of its builder; but the builder is dead, and people say concerning his work, Ne plus ultra. Should it be destroyed by an earthquake, it would not be rebuilt; and when shattered by the voice of God, with all earth's dead monuments, it will perish forever. The temple of Solomon exceeded in magnificence and richness that built by Zerubbabel, but God said that the glory of the latter should exceed that of the former, because of Christ's literal presence within its walls. So Christ takes the poor, ruined, dying, yet willing temple from the slums or the brothel, where Satan has cast it, puts within it His own presence, and bids it "live." The form stands erect. The bloated face disappears; the rheum departs from the eyes; the foul spirits from the breath; the tongue sings praises to God; the rags give place to cleanness and wholeness, emblem of the life within; and out from the clear, true, steady eyes another spirit looks. The Shepherd is restoring the soul. The Architect is rebuilding the temple. In our own limited observation we see done what man can not do. Even here it is to the praise of the glory of His grace.

BUT, O, what will it be when the incorruptible character shall be given the immortal flesh; when the Divine shall have fashioned the outward as well as the inward, when every form and motion, every look and tone, shall speak of Infinite Power, Wisdom, and Love!—then will we see God's handiwork unmarred. And then all the dead temples of earth will be seen in their insignificance. But now, brother, God's possible immortal temples are all around you; do you appreciate their worth? Are you helping to build? X.