BUILDING TEMPLES

[Of Special Interest to Children]

ELSIE E. EDWARDS

Marion and Florence were spending their vacation with a friend at her summer home in the country. Both little girls were pupils in a Christian Science Sunday School, where they had learned that every good thing comes from God, that they should love Him and always be grateful for all His goodness, and that they should also love all His children.

Each day their friend read to them from the Bible and from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The passages which she read were from the Lesson-Sermon for that week in the Christian Science Quarterly. Some of the Bible references told of King Solomon, who was very wise and had had a beautiful temple built where he and his people might worship God:

As these little girls thought of the many stones in the walls of King Solomon's temple and how they all had to be fitted together so perfectly, they began to see that everyone who is trying to be good and kind and loving is really building a temple too, a temple for God in his own thought. So each morning they made an eager search for new stones to put into the temples which they were beginning to build.

They found that honesty, patience, love, gratitude, and obedience were some of the stones which were necessary if their temples were to stand and be strong when storms of error seemed to come.

The two little girls were very happy playing together, because they loved each other and were both trying to be truly good. They enjoyed watching the birds, the flowers, the butterflies, and the little creatures in the woods.

But one morning Marion sat in the swing alone. Florence was sitting under a tree some distance away. Both looked very unhappy.

After a time their friend came out of the house and discovered Florence sitting under the tree. "Aren't you playing with Marion this morning?" she asked. Florence shook her head. "Don't you want to play with her?" continued her friend.

"No, she wasn't nice to me, and I don't like her any more," was Florence's answer.

At once the friend saw that error had been talking to these little girls and that they had believed it and begun to think wrong things about each other. Having stopped loving, they were unhappy. Sitting down beside Florence, she said: "You know, dear, all this week we have been learning about the lovely stones that we may put into our temples to make them good and beautiful. Don't you suppose we can find just the right stone to use now?"

For a few moments Florence was very thoughtful. Then a smile came over her face, and in an instant she was bounding across the lawn to where Marion was sitting in the swing.

After they had talked together only a little while, Marion too was smiling. The shadow was all gone. They had found another beautiful stone for their temples and had used it. Its name was "forgiveness."

Their friend told them the Bible story of Jesus' parents finding him when he was only twelve years old sitting in the temple among the doctors, listening to them and asking them questions. They heard that Jesus was always trying to learn more of God so that he might help others and make them happy, and that he gave us the Golden Rule, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." He built such a strong temple of pure, right thoughts that he was able to heal the sick and the sinning and to prove at all times that God is the only power and always takes care of those who trust Him.

In presenting Christian Science to the world our dear Leader made use of many precious stones, such as love for God and man, unselfishness, courage, and trust in good. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 she wrote (p. 19), "I say it with joy,—no person can commit an offense against me that I cannot forgive." Marion and Florence had learned how easy it was to forgive when they saw that error was wrong thinking and that it wasn't really true, for God is All and all of His children are loving and lovable. The remaining days of their visit were very joyous. They continued to watch their thoughts carefully each day so that they could build their temples with kind, loving thoughts. In this way they brought joy to all who knew them.

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