Character Develops in Silence

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What a silent but awful work is character building! We understand now why “there was neither hammer, nor ax, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while the temple was in building” (1 Kings. 6:7).

It has been discovered that the quarries where the stones were made ready were under the city. All the preparations were made in silence and secrecy down beneath the tread of busy life; and then, when the great blocks were cleft from their bed, hewn, shaped, polished, and fitted for their place, they were hoisted through a shaft to the temple platform and lifted to their exact position. So all the preparations for character go forward in silence and secrecy; but the results are manifest in the structure which, for glory or shame, mysteriously grows before our eyes.

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