2) ives us u piece of autobiography He tells us how he built a structure which in every detail answered to} his whims and fancies. Whatsocver ho desired he obtained to pour in Javish measure upon that palace of pleasure upon which he could look evident satisfaction, but no sooner had it been completed than the thing began to pall, and as it dissolved like a house of cards, he was left with only 09 with to express his disillusionment, The Fate of Babylon the empire build ex, having finished his masterpicee—that great city of Babylon walls, its gates, its towers and its hanging gardens, walks along one of the spacious terraces to behold his handiwork. Phere the city lies before him, and his satisfaction with the spectacular knows no bound: "Is not this great Babylon which have built?" "Is not this the master piece? Will this. not last for ever? No, How short lived it was destined (o be Nebuchadnezzar would not care to know. To-day its very yoing are ruined beneath the withering desert sand, this enthusi disciple, whilst ready (o follow Christ, and to adhere to his teaching; laid great store by this temple of the Idumean monarch. Everything spoke of beauty and endurance, and to think that "such will be dissolved was dreadful to contemplate, The stones {ty and ie i Tailed to full a spire were the least enduring part abe
tual purpose its doom was already ans, epicureans, and revigious enthusiasts alike' must. learn that the spectacular does not abide. It is not e: sentially the most permanent. If this lesson could be pressed on multitudes to-day would enable them to revise thole values, and to lay up treasure which abides, where moth and rust de not corrupt and where thieves do. net break through and steal, Our-Lord came to build. He was "to erect an edifice, but he would not erect the spiritual edifice upon the foundations of the spectacular and material. We was not prepared to Pat new wine into old bottles, nor would he mend an old garment, be i ever so gaudy, with the new piece of cloth, In this passage in St.
Mark's] Gospel we see the differences between vine and human viewpoints. The disciple was keen that Christ should be impressed with his point of view. He wanted the Master to behold the temple in the light of the present. On the other hand, Christ would tuike his eyes from the present to the future, from the appearance the reality. He must learn that the building he now beheld was not crumble into decay bat was to be thrown down. Judgment would bel meted out to it, and it would cease to be.
'The follower of Christ must learn that the things which are seen are! temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 'The enduring thing' is not that which can be submitted to the experiment of the senses, but that which faith most realize at first hand.
Faith the Great Anchor ith is the evidence of things not} the light of the days hat' were soon to come upon that: people and nation how essential that faith was, Faith is the great an-char in an age of dissolution.
Again, this structure which the disciple so: much admired was not even partially good. It stood there wholly inadequate and utterly condemned. This place where God said We would set His name had become a vendeavous for scribes and Phar-sees, a tane for those who trusted in themselves and despised others, and stood there to thank God that they were not as other men, a sancruary where the secular had dis-pineed the spiritual, a house of God which had been converted into a den Jot thieves, a council chamber for those ecclesiastical leaders who brought the sin of the nation to a climax by eruifying the Eternal Son of God.
How could such a place stand?' Its walls may be imposing, its adornments wonderfal, but the element of permanence had gone out of it. It had Jost its unique and spiritual character in the sea of materialism.
The Witness of God But God does not leave Himself without a witness. He will erect a building, not made with human hands. "It shall' be one of his own building, and the character of it} shall be as secure a his own, "Upon this rock 1 will build my lehurch". Yes, Christ had already counted the cost, had already taken stock of the material, had already measured the strength of that fel low ship He was to call into being, and against which the forces of hell would be hurled.
This building was to be both comjptete and triumphant. It would survive every blast and conquer in every time of battle.
Such is the assurance our Lord! gave us in these words. It is the Spiritual house which lasts when the material fane has ceased to be.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.