in the construction of material and earthly temples. But when the
operative art ceased, and the speculative science took its place, then the
Freemasons symbolized the labors of their predecessors by engaging in the
construction of a spiritual temple in their hearts, which was to be made
so pure that it might become the dwelling-place of Him who is all purity.
It was to be "a house not made with hands," where the hewn stone was to be
a purified heart.

This symbolism, which represents man as a temple, a house, a sacred
building in which God is to dwell, is not new, nor peculiar to the masonic
science. It was known to the Jewish, and is still recognized by the
Christian, system. The Talmudists had a saying that the threefold
repetition of the words "Temple of Jehovah," in the seventh chapter and
fourth verse of the book of Jeremiah, was intended to allude to the
existence of three temples; and hence in one of their treatises it is
said, "Two temples have been destroyed, but the third will endure
forever," in which it is manifest that they referred to the temple of the
immortal soul in man.

By a similar allusion, which, however, the Jews chose wilfully to
misunderstand, Christ declared, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up." And the beloved disciple, who records the conversation,
does not allow us to doubt of the Saviour's meaning.

"Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and
wilt thou rear it up in three days?

"But he spake of the temple of his body." [202]

In more than one place the apostle Paul has fondly dwelt upon this
metaphor. Thus he tells the Corinthians that they are "God's building,"
and he calls himself the "wise master builder," who was to lay the
foundation in his truthful doctrine, upon which they were to erect the
edifice.[203] And he says to them immediately afterwards, "Know ye not
that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you?"

In consequence of these teachings of the apostles, the idea that the body
was a temple has pervaded, from the earliest times to the present day, the
system of Christian or theological symbolism. Indeed, it has sometimes
been carried to an almost too fanciful excess. Thus Samuel Lee, in that
curious and rare old work, "_The Temple of Solomon, pourtrayed by
Scripture Light,_" thus dilates on this symbolism of the temple:--

"The _foundation_ of this temple may be laid in humility and contriti