Article December 3, 1904 Issue

A Sermon in Stone

EUGENIE PAUL JEFFERSON.

While looking one day into the excavation made for the laying of the foundation of the enlargement of our Mother Church, I found the lesson that we who are working to erect "the structure of Truth and Love" within, must start aright, by first pulling down the buildings which mortal mind, false education, has erected, "the strongholds of materiality and personality" which have encumbered the place of truth; and having cleared away the rubbish we must dig down deep to make room for a sure and firm foundation on the solid rock, the Christ-truth.

Mind is the builder, we the workmen, and our tools are good, keen, and well tempered: the trowel which is to serve us in laying the substantial blocks of truth must be pure and unselfish purpose: the cables which lift the great blocks to their places must be scientific demonstrations; our plans—the Bible, our text-book, and our literature—must ever be open, they will guide us aright, while our great architect watches over all, directing by day, guarding by night. As we work we must know that the building is already complete in Mind. Having studied the plan, we know the ideal to be perfect, but others have not yet had the meaning of these plans revealed to them, therefore we must work to express the perfection which we know, that they, seeing the beautiful structure rising "in the strength of Spirit" (Science and Health, p. 393), may admire it and be led to seek the same great Builder to remodel, enlarge, and beautify their own lives.

The lesson was complete when, after looking down into the excavation in Boston, my eyes were raised to the glistening pinnacle of the finished spire of the church in Concord. Our mental building cannot be too beautiful. The windows must be clear and transparent, letting in the sunshine of Truth, gilding every shadowy corner of consciousness; the carving must be of pure and noble lives, the chimes must tell of harmony, the whole interior of peace and of the beauty which our Leader says "is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind, and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, in form, outline, and color". (Science and Health, p. 247).

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