God’s Architectural Plan
Matthew xxi. 42 v.
11 Did ye never read the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?”
The book of each man’s life is made out of rejected articles. I take up to-day what I laid down yesterday. The sighs of the past have become the songs of the present; the winter from which I fled has met me as my spring. And the large world is like the small. It has mistaken the plan of its own architecture. It found at the beginning a stone which seemed a blemish; it was the stone of sacrifice. How came it there? Men said: “It must have been an accident! — let the building go on without it, let the workmen pass it by.” But the tower would not reach to heaven, labour as they might; and the toilers piled in vain. Then they said “Let us try the old stone — the rejected stone.” And they picked up from the ground the thing they had cast away, and lo! it fitted all the vast space
150 SflAROHINGS IN TEE SILEXGE.
between earth and heaven. The accident became the design; the blemish was made the bloom; the interruption proved the finishingtouch of the tower that climbed to God.
Son of Man, Thou symbol and soul of sacrifice, Thou art the architectural plan of this world. Without Thee, not only can we do nothing; we cannot make out what has been done. We have looked at the wrong plan, and the world will not yield it, We have figured skies without clouds, fields without tares, laughter without tears. And the real skies are not cloudless, the real fields are not tareless, the real laughter is not tearless. Hast Thou broken the rainbow of Thy promise? Nay, Thou hast broken my bow, not Thine. Thy bow abides in strength, for it is the bow in the cloud. There are no drops so vindicated as tear-drops. I have painted my sea without the waves; but Thou hast made the waves for Thy feet. I have painted my world without the mountains; but Thy steps are beautiful upon the mountains. I have painted my day without a breeze; but Thou ridest upon the wings of the wind. I have painted my morning without a night; but with Thee the evening and the morning are one day. The streets of Thy New Jerusalem are paved with gold, but it is with gold tried in the fire. The stone that sparkled on Olivet was hewn on Calvary.