Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-10-29
\ By Rev.
q DE WITT TALMACC, DID,,
~ Jefferson Park Presby.
nr hurch. ChicAeo


mons temple was to the Hebrew heart.
1t was tho one spot about which ma
donal pride and religious fervor cen
tered; 1t was the one place above all
others which the Israelite wanted to
see, as the Mussulman devotee says.
Let me, l pray thee. worship once ut
Mecca before l die" In it was the
Shechinah the holy Of HOLES, the re-
pository of the covenantal ark. 1T was
Gods footstool. 1t was like a frag-
ment of hea ven's manifested glories.
Like the Tai Mahal of India. whose
walls were once inlaid with gold and
precious stones to the value OF mil
lions upon millions of dollars, the Solo
monte temple was famous not SO much
for its size as for its intrinsic worth.
The weight of the nails employed in
the temple" the book Of Chronicles
tells us. was fifty shekels of solid
gold" Josephus, the secular histo-
rian. records that its walls were con-
posed entirely of white stone; that the
walls and ceilings Were wainscoted
with cedar, which was covered with
the purest gold" So precious were the
materials and utensils of this wonder
ful sanctuary that the fame of them
spread to foreign lands and excited
the cupidity of Shishak and Jehoash,
who journeyed to Jerusalem to plum
der 1t. All its glory and grandeur,
however, We're reduced to ashes when
King ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. after stripping
1t of its gold AMI removing its jeweled
vessels, applied the torch, and its spir-
it, after an earthly existence of All
years, Elijah-like, assembled toward
heaven in chariot of fire Can we
be mista X Ell in thinking that building
SO beautiful and SO exceptionally hal
lowed by the Divine Presence had Il
spirit? Victor Hugo, the author Of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
thought that there must be spirit In
that poem in stone" Is there not a
spirit incarnated in st. Paurs, the
work of Sir Christopher Wren? In
the chaste architecture Of the Church
of the Madeleine in Paris? In the
grandeur of the cathedral of Milan
and in St. Marks of Venice. Why not,
then, in that magnificent edi6ce in
which God dwelt among men?
A Sacred Temple.
Not alone in gold and precious stones
was the temple of Solomon unique. 1t
was great in its spiritual associations.
Its very site had a sunctity of its own.
1t was so sacred in the eyes OF king
and people that when the temple was
erected measures We're taken to avoid
even the ordinary sounds of tools In
the book of Kings we read. And the
house, when it was building, was built
of stone made ready before it was
brought thither so that there was nei-
Their hammer nor ak nor any tool of
iron heard in the house while it was in
building" AS the steel bridge today
Is sent from the foundries with each
girder and trestle and beam marked
beforehand for its position so the
temples stones and beams were cut
and fitted together miles away from
their ultimate destination When the
temples walls were reared they rose
amid the impressive sacredness of 81
lence. So sacred was the place that on
the day of the temples dedication, on
the day when the ark of the covenant
was placed within the holy Of holes,
"the glory of the Lord filed the house
Of the Lord" It filed ali the house
with bright cloud; it filed the house
with the same majestic symbol as that
which led the Israelitcs through the
desert, as that which the prophet saw
around the throne Of God and as that
which overshadowed our Lord when
he talked with Moses and Elias on the
Mount Of TRANSPORTATION,
Paul had in mind both the intrinsic
value and the suipa ssing sanctity of
the Solomonic temple in the compari-
Ron OF the text The physical body OF
man is temple in both senses of the
word. Paul was not one of those who
despised the flesh" as we term the
''fesh" He did not believe that beau
ty is only skin deep and that "ugli,
ness sinks to the bone" He believed
that the connection between the body
and the soul Is so close that you can
not iniure one without affecting the
other so Paul IN these words OF my
text, practically says TO all men and
women, BE careful what you do with
that hand; be careful how you misuse
that foot; be careful that you do not
let the tongue become detled with
wicked words" Know ye not thai
your body Is great cathedral, more
momentous in its functions than thai
called ST. John the Divine, which the
Episcopalan church is erecting in New
York city today? Know We not that
your body is the place where Goo
looks through the window OF the ey,
and speaks through the trumpet of tn.
throat and feels with the appendageS
of the fingers? Be careful of thai
frame of bone and muscle and sinew-
that physical frame Of yours, filled
with arterial canals through which thu
blood courses. Know ye not that YOU
body is the temple of the Holy GhostT
The physical body, in the first place
should be strong temple. Its chest
should be broad and deep, It's limits
supple and sinewy its nerves steady
and like cords of steel, its heart beat
ing with the regularity Of a pumping
autOmatOn; it should be made as strong
as possible because all temporal anG
spiritual happiness depends TO n great
extent upon the physical body being il
healthy condition.
When the soul laughs the body
sI,a., hn