WELL BUILT HOMES AND CITIES

WELL BUILT HOMES AND CITIES  

"Except Jehovah build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except Jehovah keep the city the watchman wakes but in vain" Psa. 127:1

To this Singer, HOUSE WAS HOME; and the CITY the place of such HOMES. One can discover his ideal through his song. It is that of a prosperous CITY, its enemies kept outside its gates; and that of the secret of its prosperity as being the HOUSE WELL-BUILT, in the spiritual and moral sense, and the families dwelling within such HOUSES as able to deal with its enemies in the gate. Whereas the picture has all the coloring of the East, and conditions which in their detail are not those of our region or time are described, yet the principles of civic well-being are the same. That CITY is truly strong which is a CITY OF WELL-BUILT HOMES, well-built in every sense, spiritually, morally, and materially. All that has to do with the general conceptions which the song assumes. Its message is contained in these opening words. No HOUSE-BUILDING is successful which leaves God out of account. How have we seen men build their HOUSES, with care and at great cost, only to see them crumble to pieces because God was forgotten! There is no safety for, a CITY except in the keeping of God. How often have men attempted to gain security for their CITIES by guarding them against enemies outside, and then the dwellers within, children reared in HOUSES in the building of which God was forgotten, have brought about their destruction! These would be splendid words to cut into granite over the entrance to all our HOMES, and to emblazon in gold in all the meeting places of those in civic authority. But better still let them be written in the heart of those who make HOMES, and guard and govern CITIES.