| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 9 |
Page 5 |
It is not hard to cut and dress natural stones so as to shape them for their place. They yield readily to the chisel and hammer. But these living stones have wills and can resist. If we would be made ready for our place on the wall we must let Christ have His way with us, however severe and painful His discipline may be.
One of St. Paul’s favourite words is edification. To edify is to build up. We are builders. Human lives everywhere are unfinished buildings, and every one who passes by lays a block on the wall or adds an ornament. A hundred people touch you each day, in business contacts, in social fellowships, in friendships, in letter, in transient meetings, and everyone of them builds something on the wall of your life, either something that will add to the adornment of your character or something that will mar and hurt it. Every one who comes into our presence, who speaks a word to us, who even reaches us most remotely with his influence, leaves some line of beauty or some mark of marring on our character.
“Souls are built as temples are, –
Here a carving rich and quaint,
There the image of a saint;
Here a deep hued pane to tell
Sacred truth or miracle.
Every little helps the much;
Every careful, careless touch
Adds a charm or leaves a scar.”
Page 5