The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-09-10
BY VIM. E. GILROY, ID. d.
Editor of the Congregationalist


1t is a great hour when a build
ing project attains it's achievement.
The man or woman who has
watched future home emerging
from excavation and foundation to
the final coat Of paint and the last
touches that make the home in
habitable knows something OF the
process.
There are anxieties and some
times heartaches, not infrequently
the whole result is a tragic dlsap-
pointment, but where the home full
fills the plants and expectations its
completion brings peculiar sense
of Joy. Longfellow expressed some
thing of this in his beautiful poem,
"The Hanging of the Crane"
The 10y OF a home in personal life
is even magnified in the fulfillment
of some great community project
nyhere from day to day the jewellers
village, town, or city see the
gradual upbuilding of some hall or
public work which is to represent
henceforth a rallying place or
symbol of community spirit and ac-
tivity.
House of God
How much more are all these
things enriched in their spiritual
significance when the building is the
house of God! There is sense, OF
course, in which, as Paul said, God
does not dwell in houses made with
hands"
Even Solomon in the grandeur
of his temple building acknowledged
in the beauty of his prayer that as
the whole world could not contain
the glory of God much less could
the house that he had built Never
theless religion derives much OF its
meaning from symbols and associa-
tions, from living presences and
great truths made real and vital
through their concrete expression
or through their localization in GER
tain definite and material forms.
1t is for this reason that we value
portraits and statues of great men.
Having these things does not make
greater the truth that their lives
expressed, but it does make more
real and present their influences.
All primitive religions lay great
stress upon form and symbol. With
spiritual progress men learn to dis
tinguish betwee nthe symbol and the
fact, but it should be remembered
that even our Divine Master who
taught that God is a spirit and that
they who worship must worship in
spirit and in truth set high value
nVnon the synagogue, and as he had
OPPORTUNITY graced with his pres
ence the temple with which some
of his most significant acts and
teachings we're associated.
Task of Religion
TAe whole task of religion in life
is to make intangible things tang
ible, to bring the spiritual into the
sphere of the real, and toward this
great end the religious spirit Graves
both fellowship and a place for
its expression. We may well dis
tinguish between Christianity and
churchianity; but Christianity
would have little power did it not
make it's actually known through
some such institution as the church.
The building of a great temple,
such as that erected by Solomon,
is an event in the life of people.
In a fine chapter on architecture in
Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame" the
author has told the story OF the sig
nificance of eras of building in the
worlds history. 1t was largely in
architecture that the human spirit
found expression, and in the great
structures that come down from an
tiquity we have an opportunity Of
discerning how great were the
thoughts and purposes Of men and
how wonderful, though different