Living Stones
The Upward Look PG 373
Living Stones for a Heavenly Temple
All the building fitly framed together groweth unto
an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. Eph. 2:21, 22.
If we do not respond to the light given and render corresponding obedience, keeping our souls in the love of God, abiding in Christ, that which to us
would become a blessing becomes a curse. It is the deceiver, not the Spirit of truth, that makes us believe that we cannot become pure and holy,
a powerful people separate from the world, united in love and union with one another through Christ. We need not expect any other portion than
that which was given to our Lord. According to the heart service given to God will be the enmity of Satan
against the followers of Jesus; and the children of God are more wise and powerful when the wisdom and influence of the world are arrayed
against us than when they are engaged in favor and fellowship with them. . . .
The Jewish Temple was built of hewn stones, and at great expense of time and money and labor these stones were cut out of the mountain and fitted for their places in the building before they
were collected together, so that when the building was completed there was not the sound of an ax or hammer heard in its upbuilding. The stones
which are in God's sacred temple are not collected from the mountains of Judea but gathered from the nations, kindreds and tongues and people. They are not lifeless material that must be prepared with hammer and chisel, but living stones which emit light. The great cleaver of truth has taken them
from the quarry of the world and placed them under the hand of the great Master Builder, the Lord of the temple, and He is polishing them in His workshop, which is this world,
that all the rough edges and crookedness may be removed and they hammered and chiseled and squared by the truth of God, polished and refined,
ready to fill their place in God's spiritual temple, that they may grow up a holy temple for God.
Now we are in the workshop of God, and the process is going on in these hours of probation to fit us for the glorious temple. We cannot now be indifferent and negligent and careless, and refuse to depart from sin, but we must be dying to our defects of character and expect to become pure and holy and fashioned in character after the similitude of a palace. When Christ shall come, it is then . . .
too late to obtain a holy character.
Now is the day of preparation; now is the time when we can have our defects removed; now is the time when our sins must go beforehand to judgment,
be confessed and repented of andpardon written off against our names.
Dec. 25, 1886
The Desire of Ages PG 599
Upon this living stone, Jews and Gentiles alike may build. This is the only foundation upon which we may
securely build. It is broad enough for all, and strong enough to sustain the weight and burden of the whole world. And by connection with Christ,
the living stone, all who build upon this foundation become living stones. Many persons are by their own endeavors hewn, polished, and beautified; but they cannot become "living stones,"
because they are not connected with Christ. Without this connection, no man can be saved. Without the life of Christ in us, we cannot withstand the storms of temptation. Our eternal
safety depends upon our building upon the sure foundation.
Multitudes are today building upon foundations that have not been tested. When the rain falls, and the tempest rages, and the floods come, their house will fall, because it is not founded upon the eternal Rock, the chief cornerstone Christ Jesus.