so
lives a noble and beautiful character.

CHAPTER XIII.

WITHOUT AXE OR HAMMER.

"Souls are built as temples are,--
Based on truth's eternal law,
Sure and steadfast, without flaw,
Through the sunshine, through the snows,
Up and on the building goes;
Every fair thing finds its place,
Every hard thing lends a grace,
Every hand may make or mar."

We read of the temple of Solomon, when it was in building, that it was
built of stone made ready in the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe
nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it went up.

"No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm, the noiseless fabric sprung."

So it is that the great work of spiritual temple-building goes on
continually in this world. We are all really silent builders. The
kingdom of God cometh not with observation. The divine Spirit works in
silence, changing men's hearts, transforming lives, comforting sorrow,
kindling hope in darkened bosoms, washing scarlet souls white as snow.
The preacher may speak with the voice of a Boanerges, but the power
that reaches hearts is not the preacher's noise; silently the divine
voice whispers in the soul its secret of conviction, or of hope, or of
strength. The Lord is not in the storm, in the earthquake, in the
fire, but in the sound of gentleness, the spirit's whisper, that
breathes through the soul.

Perhaps the best work any of us do in this world is that which we do
without noise. Words give forth sound, but it is not the sounds that
do good, that brighten sad faces as people listen, that change tears to
laughter, that stimulate hope, that put courage into fainting
hearts,--it is not the noise of our words, but the thoughts which the
words carry. Words are but the chattering messengers that bear the
sealed messages; and it is the messages that help and comfort. We may
make noise as we work, but it is not our noise that builds up what we
leave in beauty behind us. It is life that builds, and life is silent.
The force that works in our homes is a silent force,--mother-love,
father-love, patience, gentleness, prayer, truth, the influences of
divine grace.

It is the same in the building up of personal character in each of us.
There may be a great deal of noise all about us, but it is in silence
that we grow from a thousand sources come the little blocks that are
laid upon the walls,--the lessons we get from others, the influence