- Building[13]
- Work[16]
- Invisible![19]
- Mr. Almost[22]
- Fishing[25]
- Showing Off[28]
- Keeping Fit[31]
- Questioning[34]
- Loyalty[37]
- A Good Sport[40]
- Feasting[44]
- Stewardship[47]
- Talents[50]
- Fighting[54]
- Drifting[57]
- Resurrection[60]
- Knowing How[63]
- Friendship[66]
- Alabaster[69]
- Telling It[72]
- Ready![76]
- Remembering[79]
- Getting Even[82]
- Greatness[85]
- "Paw, I Wanta Be Somebody!"[88]
- "Let Down Your Feet!"[92]
- An "Unassisted Triple Play"[96]
- Forgiving[100]
- Paradox[103]
- Fraud[106]
- The Big Task[110]
- Power[113]
- Christmas[116]
- Aiming High[119]
- Waiting[122]
- Action[125]
- A Coronation[128]
- Do It Right[130]
- Keeping Faith[133]
- The Game That Came Near Blowing
Up In the Seventh Inning[135] - The Bitten Apple[138]
- My Kingdom[141]
- A Tool Box[144]
- Saul Niagara[148]
- "Turning the Battle at the Gate"[152]
- A King in Rags[155]
- Shaking up Philippi[158]
- Go In Yet—And Win![162]
- Green Fruit[166]
- The Bedouin Slave[170]
I
BUILDING
Say, fellows, look at Solomon building a temple! Ever see anything like that? Yes, I have. I saw some boys building a dam. It was a peach of a dam when they got it finished; and the little stream that trickled along between the hillsides filled it up by next day, making a lake big enough to put a boat in. But, oh, how those fellows worked! For a whole week they brought rocks—big rocks—logs, and mud. Some of those stones and logs were dragged and rolled a quarter of a mile. They built right skillfully, too; they ricked it and they anchored the cribs; they piled in the rocks and braced the supports.
Work? I should think they did. From early morning until dark they worked, hardly stopping long enough for meals. But it was truly some dam when they got through. Then came the big moment for which they had laboured and endured: they closed the small outlet protected by several sections of terra-cotta pipe at the base—and let her fill!
Solomon went at building the temple pretty much the same way. The boys who built the dam said they were going to make the best boys' dam in all that country around, and they did. Solomon said he was going to put up the largest, the strongest, the finest, the best-looking temple of all for God. He put one hundred and fifty thousand strong men in the forests and in the quarries, getting out the finest timber and the best stone; he had these materials brought by sea and by land; he employed workers in brass, and stone-cutters and gold-beaters wherever he could find the most skillful, regardless of the cost, and he himself directed the work.
Well, it was a peach of a temple, too. Nothing like it had ever been seen before. Crowning the highest hill in Jerusalem, overlooking all the country around, its marble walls, its shining brass pillars, its white chiselled columns, and its golden interior, it shone like a gem of dazzling beauty. When Solomon had finished it, he invited the Lord to come into it, and "the glory of the Lord filled the house."
Fellows, we are all building some kind of a temple, and we build some on it every day. I saw a bleary-eyed dope fiend going along the street the other day. He has built a temple—a temple to the god Appetite. His temple is truly a sorry looking shack, but it is good enough for the god he serves. I know a very seedy individual, going around begging a living of whomsoever will give him a dime or a nickel. He has built his temple to the god Idleness. It is a ramshackle affair, to be sure, but it is plenty good for the god he serves. I know another fellow who has built a very ordinary looking temple—rather poor inside and out. He served the god "Let Well Enough Alone." There are many temples like his, and little joy is in them; but they are good enough for the god "Do-Little."