Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

work."
A
Gift for God
Address at the dedication of the Educational Addition to the church, New Alexandria, Pa. March 18, 1955
Prof. J. B. Willson, D.D.
This is a happy occasion. We have met to set
apart, to dedicate, a new building for the worship
and service of God. There is connected with this the
rededication of the old house of worship, to which
the new is now joined, to a larger and fuller service
to God, to His people, and to this community.
Builders, Ancient and Modern
We turn back in thought to a happy occasion
about twenty-four hundred years ago. Cyrus, king of
Persia, had sent home from captivity a group of God
fearing people of Judah, about fifty thousand in
number, with the special commission to build the
house of the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem. Chap
ters I, III, and VI of Ezra bear on our subject, but
we are especially interested in chapter III.
There are several differences between their sit
uation and ours. Their old house of worship had been
destroyed. Ours is still standing, in good condition,
still an attractive building, both inside and outside.
The people who were building the church then had
just recently returned after an absence of many
years, in captivity. The builders now have had their
homes here for many years. There were many there
to support the work of building. There are not nearly
so many here. The people there met with great oppo
sition after the work was under way. Their neigh
bors, whose families had been settled there by the
Babylonians in the exchange of populations when not
allowed to join in the work, opposed it vigorously.
They stopped it for about fifteen years. Here the
work has continued without any such interruption.
There are several resemblances. The people at
Jerusalem had good leadership. The book of Ezra
places on record for ever a number of names. You
had good leadership here, in planning, in starting the
work, and in carrying it through to completion.
They had and you have had good helpers. A few
leaders cannot do it all. The record tells of their giv
ing money to the masons and to the carpenters, and
food to those who brought cedar trees from Lebanon ;
of their setting forward the workmen in the house of
the Lord. They secured men who knew how to put up
a building. When later on the wall was being built,
we read "the people had a mind to This is the
secret of the satisfactory completion of any task.
You wanted this building, and you stayed with the
job till it was done.
They had good givers. The end of chapter two
tells of offerings for the house. This building has
taken money as well as work. You have been ready to
meet the cost.
They had God's blessing upon them. Cyrus is
sued his proclamation. Those who returned were
those whose spirit God had raised up. When the
foundation was laid, they had a service of praise and
thanksgiving to God. When the work was stopped,
God opened the way again. They dedicated the house
with special offerings, and with the observance of
May 18, 1955
the passover. "The Lord had made them joyful, and
turned the heart of the king of Assyria, to strength
en their hands in the work of the house of God." You
feel that God has helped you, and directed you. Now
you have assembled to dedicate this building,
and to
give thanks to God.
Mingled Sorrow and Rejoicing
Two verses about the first service tell how the
people felt about it. "But many of the priests and
Levites and chief of the fathers,
men, that had seen the first house, when the founda
who were ancient
tion of this house was laid before their eyes, wept
with a loud voice ; and many shouted aloud for joy :
so that the people could not discern the noise of the
shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the
people ; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and
off."
the noise was heard afar
The younger people in Jerusalem had never seen
the temple of Solomon in all its glory. The oldest peo
ple recalled going to it in company.
They recalled
their fellow-worshipers ; those who led in the services
of the sanctuary. They recalled the passing of the
glorious building. They recalled the years in cap
tivity. Memories that bless and burn pressed upon
their hearts. So often it is with us. I have a feeling of
sadness and a sort of homesickness of the heart when
I pass our old Allegheny church building where I
worshiped through childhood and youth. I rejoice in
the new church on Perrysville Avenue, but my heart
turns back to the place which I knew as a child. When
a congregation celebrates an anniversary, we usually
have a diagram of the pews, often of an older build
ing, with the names written in of the families who
sat in each pew. We older people can shut our eyes
and picture the old days. Younger people who have
not grown old along with the old church, undisturbed
by memories, know only joy in the new church.
The Evolution of Our Homes
Do we need new churches or new additions to
churches What about our homes We love our old
homes. But we make improvements. Caves and tents
and sod houses and log cabins were displaced by
frame and brick and stone dwellings ; in time by man
sions, castles and palaces. One room for all purposes
has become many rooms for specialized purposes. The
trip to the spring or pump was abandoned for run
ning water in the home; bathrooms have become
standard equipment. Candles yielded to oil lamps, to
gas jets, to electric lights ; a wood fire to a stove, to
a gas range, to an electric range. Now we have ranch
type houses and picture windows. With buildings as
with generations of people, one passeth away and
another cometh.
The Evolution of Our Churches
Study the places of worship in the Old Testa
ment. At first there was the altar under the open
sky. Then came the tent without the camp where
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