Article September 4, 1909 Issue

LESSONS FROM AN UNFINISHED BUILDING

MARY J. LEAVITT

Near my home there has stood for several years a large unfinished building. When the structure was ready for the roof. the building inspector had decided that it failed to conform to the given specifications, and ordered it torn down. The foundation, he declared, was insecure, the walls were not plumb; in fact, the entire construction from start to finish was defective. The order to tear it down was followed by a protracted period of litigation, and entailed on the owner much financial loss.

In this incident there was food for thought, and I endeavored for my own edification and enlightenment to read and apply to the best of my ability and understanding this "sermon in stone." Here was an imposing and stately building, one which to the unskilled and unpractised eye of the novice seemed perfect and symmetrical in every detail; but, subjected to the careful and rigid examination of the artisan trained in the finer points of his calling, it was found to be so insecure as to necessitate its being razed to the ground; and the trying and expensive litigation above referred to followed.

We are each building a structure destined to endure through all eternity, and our Leader warns us that "we cannot build safely on false foundations;" that "we should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are" (Science and Health, pp. 201, 8). Would it not be well for each of us constantly to ask ourselves these questions: Are our foundations of such a character as to support the superstructure? Do we know God and love Him? Is the structure that we are rearing in consciousness of such a nature as to stand the final, supreme test? Do we value the material more than the spiritual? Do we hate our fellow-man?

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