Mother: It might be called by that name, for it is the house of God, where His people worship Him. But as we were looking at these pictures I have been thinking of another kind of house in which we all live, which is more wonderful than any building ever made by men. There are a great number of these houses. All are made of the same things, all have the same kind of frame, all have the same number of rooms, and, though there are thousands of them in every country, they are all lighted, heated, finished, and furnished the same way.
Percy: Oh, I know what you mean! You are thinking of our bodies.
Mother: Yes; and if you study this house God made for you to live in, you will be ready to say, with King David, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” The more men study this body of ours, the more they find to make them wonder at the wisdom of its Maker. If a man invents a useful machine, such as a watch or an engine, he is praised and called a great man. But how few ever praise and thank the Lord for the body He has given them, and try to learn the best way to care for it!
Helen: I should like to know how to care for mine, but I never thought of my body as a house before.
Mother: We may call it a house, because the Bible calls it so; and, more than that, it says it is a temple. Listen to this verse: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
Amy: Then this house or temple of the body does not belong to us, mother, for it says, “Ye are not your own.”
Percy: I see how it is. You know people sometimes build houses to rent, and the One who made the house we live in gives it to us for a home as long as we live, and He wants us to take good care of it.
Mother: That is right. The house is loaned or “rented” to us, as Percy says, for us to live in and care for. God cares for it too, and if it wasn’t for that it would have been destroyed long ago. Before any of us were old enough to know we had such a gift as our bodies, kind friends cared for them for us, and every moment our heavenly Father watches over us, for “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” When we go to sleep He still keeps the heart engine pumping, and the parts which become worn out during the day are nicely mended without our thought or care.
Elmer: I want the house I live in to be like that pretty temple we saw in the picture.
Mother: Then my boy must be very careful to keep it clean, not only outside but inside as well. You know we sometimes see houses painted nicely outside, and we think what good homes they would make; but when once inside we find the rooms so dirty we want to get away. So boys and girls may be nicely dressed and look well outside, but if they do not eat good food and have good habits, their body-house is not fit to live in.