BURNED UP OR BUILT UP by Sumboulos

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 23, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 51.

BURNED UP OR BUILT UP.

By Sumboulos

You see, young man, the illustration on this page. It is easily understood. It looks like the remains of a once more or less noble building, and it is.

Just a few hours before the photograph was taken of which this is a reproduction, there stood in the place of these ruins a noble church, a temple of God, dedicated to the work of saving and uplifting humanity. But in the interior, by some carelessness on the part of some one, the fire began, and when it was discovered, it was too late to save the noble structure, and it burned to the condition shown here, a heap of rubbish.

As I looked upon it next morning, I thought how like all that is to many wrecks of humanity. They started in life noble temples of humanity. They might have been used to God's glory and to bless humanity, but they have allowed the fires of sin to burn till the very temples are hopeless wrecks. Such may be seen in the streets of our cities every day, dreaded derelicts on the sea of life, dead in moral power and usefulness, but not buried. They are an offense to every refined sense of humanity which touches them, sight, hearing, smelling. Young men loathe to touch them. They are curses to homes, blots on civilization, burdens on the body politic.

And yet, young man, pause a moment. Do not hurry on. It was not so long ago when that hopeless wreck of humanity was as strong, as fair, as clean, as beautiful, as respectable, as you are now. But he carelessly, selfishly, allowed a fire to burn, a hidden gangrene to corrode. A burning fire must feed on something; a gangrene must eat till all is poisoned.

Are you sure, young man, that you are not in danger? The mug of beer, or the glass of wine, for which you have no particular appetite now, may be the beginning of a fire that will destroy you. The fire which burned the church started once by a little match that a child's breath would have extinguished. The poor wreck of humanity before you had not at one time taken even his first glass.

Your visit to the theater is nothing, you say, but it creates dislike for good things, holy things, and may be the first flame in the fire which will leave your temple of character ruins. The artificial and false of life destroys appetite for the real, as living on pastry and condiments destroys the appetite for that which is good and undefiled.

That "quiet game of cards," a little exciting, made a little more so by a small stake, and a glass of wine, is flame and fuel added to a fire which burns only to destroy.

Once more, young man: Are you yielding to the baser lusts of your nature? Are you indulging in secret sins? You may think them hidden, but they are burning, weakening, destroying the moral and physical fibers of the man. The next thing beyond is to follow the steps of her whose paths lead down to a hell on earth, and to destruction of soul and body, where conscience itself is dead, and the wreck is but a moving semblance of a man.

O, beware the first step in anything which ends in destruction. "Ponder the path of thy feet; let all thy ways be established." "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Quench by the living waters of righteousness in Christ Jesus every flame of folly, every burning of lust that may break forth, and live for God and humanity, a noble edifice of character, growing, and helping to build others up into noble temples of God. SUMBOULOS.