'. . . There was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of Iron heard In the house, while it was in building.'—1 KINGS vi 7.
The Temple was built in silence. It 'rose like an exhalation.'
'No hammer fell, no ponderous axes rung, Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.'
Perhaps it was merely for convenience of transport and to save time that the stones were dressed in the quarries, but more probably the silence was due to an instinct of reverence. We may fairly use it as suggesting two thoughts.
I. How God's house is mostly built in silence. 'The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation.'
(1) In reference to its advance in the world. Destructive work is noisy, constructive work is silent. God was in 'the still small voice,' not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire. Christ's own career, how silent it was! Drums are loud and empty. The spread of the kingdom was unnoticed by the world's great ones—Caesars, philosophers, patricians, and it silently grew underground. Hence may flow—
(a) An encouragement to those whose work is inconspicuous.
(b) A lesson not to mistake noise and notoriety for spiritual progress.
(c) Guidance as to our expectations of the advance of Christ's kingdom. It will transform society by slow, often unnoticed, degrees, by radical change of individuals' habits. The elevation of humanity will be slow, like the imperceptible rise of the Norwegian coast. Sudden changes are short-lived changes. 'Lightly come, lightly go.' What matures slowly will last long.
(2) In reference to its growth in our souls.