We are all builders. We may not
erect any house or temple on a city street for human eyes
to see, but every one of us builds an edifice which God sees. Life is a building. It rises
slowly, day by day, through the years. Every new lesson we learn
lays another block on the edifice which is rising silently within
us. Every experience, every touch
of another life on ours, every influence that impresses us,
every book we read, every conversation we have, every act in our commonest
days, adds something to our invisible building. All of life furnishes
the materials which add to our life wall. Many people build
noble character structures in this world, but there are also
many who build only base, shabby huts, without beauty, which will
be swept away in the testing fires of judgment. There are
many, too, whose life work presents the sorry spectacle of an unfinished
building, There was a beautiful plan to begin with, and the work
was promising for a little time, but, after a while, it was abandoned
and left standing, with walls half-way up, a useless fragment,
open and exposed, an incomplete, inglorious ruin, telling no story
of past splendour, as do the ruins of some old castle or coliseum. a monument only of folly and
failure. Sin in some form draws many a
builder away from his work to leave it unfinished. It may be
the world's fascinations which lure him from Christ's side. It may be evil companions which
tempt him from loyal friendship to the Saviour. It may be riches
which enter his heart and blind his eyes to the attractions of
heaven. It may be some secret debasing
lust which gains power over him and paralyzes his spiritual life. Many are those now amid the world's
throngs who once sat at the Lord's table and were among God's people. Their lives are unfinished buildings,
towers begun with great enthusiasm, and then left to tell their sad
story of failure to all who pass by. They began to build, and
were not able to finish. It is sad to think how much of
this unfinished work God sees as he looks down upon our earth. Think of the good beginnings
which never came to anything in the end. Think of the excellent
resolutions which are never carried out. Think of noble life-plans
entered upon by so many young people with ardent enthusiasm,
but soon given up. think of the beautiful visions
and high hopes which might have been splendid realities, but
which have faded out, with not even one earnest attempt to work
them into life. In all aspects of life we see
these abandoned buildings. Many homes present the spectacle
of abandoned dreams of love. For a time the beautiful vision
shone, and two hearts tried to make it come true, but they gave
their dream up in despair, either enduring in misery or going their
own sad and separate ways. So life everywhere is full of
beginnings which are never carried on to completion. There is not
a soul-wreck on the streets, not a prisoner serving out a
sentence behind prison bars, not a debased fallen person anywhere,
in whose soul there were not once visions of beauty, high
hopes, holy thoughts and purposes, and high resolves of an ideal
of something lovely and noble. But alas! the visions, the hopes,
the purposes, the resolves, never grew into more than beginnings. God bends down and sees a great
wilderness of unfinished buildings, bright possibilities, unfulfilled,
noble might-have-beens, abandoned, ghastly ruins now, sad memorials
only of failure. The lesson from all this is that
we should finish our work, allow nothing to draw us away from
our duty, never become weary in following Christ, persevere
from the beginning of our ideals, steadfast unto the end. We should
not falter under any burden, in the face of any danger, before
any demand of cost or sacrifice. No discouragement, no sorrow,
no worldly attraction, no hardship should weaken for one moment
our determination to be faithful unto death. No one who has begun
to build for Christ should leave an unfinished, abandoned life-work
to his own eternal grief. This fellow began to build and
was not able to finish. Luke 14 verse 30