The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-08-31

II naQ been 0U years Since tIle.
great Temple of Solomon was
burned to the ground, and the
beautiful objects of silver and
gold. which were 50 famous.
had been carted off as loot by
The invaders from the Euphra-
ties. Fifty years is a long time.
Men now with grey boards, 60
years old or so, had been young
children when the city fell to
Nebuc hadneZzar. But old people
remember far-past events bet
ter than most young ones do:
and the splendor Of Soloinon's
temple was not to be forgotten.
Foundations
But though not forgotten Solo
mons temple could not be re-
placed either. The first great
public work undertaken by the
returned exiles, who brought no
wealth with them, was to begin
the erection of a temple on the
site of the old. When the foun-
dalton was laid, the old men
wept, because the remembered
the magnificence Of the old
temple and realized that this
would never look like that. But
the young people shouted for
joy. for they had never seen a
temple at all. And the young
ones were right. for those foun-
dations were to bear the weight
of a temple that was destined
to last as Ions as Solomon's, or
even longer. 1t would become a
center of religious life for thous-
ands of worshippers. It's sue
cessor. even if a king built it
land king did, would never
be loved as this one would be.
Incidentally this became the
temple W here our book of
Psalms was first used as a
hymn book.
But it all began with the
foundations. All foundations look
about alike; and they don't look
like much. It takes imagination
to see a shrine for God rising
above the dusty rock Of the
foundations.
Foundations Of Life
ALI this might suggest to us a
parable. Saint Paul once called
Christians a temple of the Lord,
SO we may apply his parable to
ourselves. All lives are built on
foundations of some kind. Jesus
spoke of two houses, perhaps
just alike except that one was
built on rock and the other one
built on sand. Foundations may
be out of sight, indeed have to
be out Of sight if they 60 down
tar enough to do some good.
Scatfoldlng is necessary but
temporary; foundations are
necessary from first day to last.
Each human life is built on
other lives. The kind of home
which father and especially a
mother make, the kind of care
they give their children, the
spirit Of the home, the faith and
hope and love of that home, are
a foundation on which good
life can be built. A home where
there are doubt and hopeless
ness and hate, a home from
which the children escape as
soon as they possibly can, is a
foundation for the life of a
criminal or a beatnik. The pro
baton officer of a large city
said that all kinds of juvenile
dellnquents, with all sorts Of
backgrounds, had come under
his eye; but never yet had he
seen a juvenile delinquent from
a home where husband and
wife lived in harmony.
On What Shall a Nations Walls
Be Built?
Nations like persons have
foundations, good or bad. People
sometimes wonder if we de-
celve ourselves when we prefer
a democratic state to any other
kind. Looking at other expert
ments in democracy, with the
exception of the northern Euro
pean nations, SO-called demOc-
racles will not seem very at
tractive. Is there anything spe-
cial about American democracy,
(Which is a child, or a first
cousin, of the democracies in
northern Europe just men
toned? Yes, there is, and this
should be said in thankfulness
and without pride, for we had
nothing to do with it. There was
a long, long period of growth.
OF trial and error, of practice,
you might say, in democratic
processes. before we started it
over here. We blame the Congo
lese for making a mess Of their
country the minute they reach
freedom. But would we have
done any better with our nation
If we had had no foundations I?
And it should not be forgotten
that a cornerstone of our foun-
datlOn is a long time faith "Tn