Article November 28, 1931 Issue

"Except the Lord build the house"

VIOLA L. JONES

All mankind, whether we realize it or not, is engaged in the work of spiritual building. However, unlike material builders, we do not have to draw our plans or design our architecture, because God has already done that for all. Our task is constantly to improve our thoughts and actions, so that each day we may be better able to understand the perfect plan of the spiritual structure which we are all seeking to unfold.

It is in connection with this daily improvement that we might make a comparison with material builders. Before a building can be erected it must have a foundation, which can be built perhaps only after considerable excavation. The building that best withstands severe tests is grounded on bed rock; and so, the spiritual building that endures, must, in the words of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 484), be founded on "the rock, Christ." To ground ourselves in Christ we must excavate from our consciousness the stones of self-love, selfishness, self-pity, self-righteousness, and self-justification, and the sand of envy, hatred, jealousy, criticism, quick temper, sickbelief, fear, false appetites, and many other claims of evil as well.

This clearing of our consciousness, this preparation toward a firm foundation, cannot be accomplished through human will; rather, it must come gently through the understanding of Love. In this way, as the divine consciousness, reflected in our thoughts, dissolves the seeming evils, we are gradually imbued with the greater strength and understanding necessary to meet the more formidable problems. We cannot stop merely with the excavation of error from our thinking. As we strive for more understanding, the walls of salvation begin to rise; physical ills are healed; traits of character are changed; and there appear the strong girders of Love, which bind securely together our whole spiritual structure.

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Rouse Ye!
November 28, 1931
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