The Son of God prophesied concerning the temple on Moriah — did He prophesy wrongly? Has one stone remained upon another, and do worshipers now enter into it? Did He prophesy wrongly?
A people poured out its whole soul into the walls of one temple, and was left empty and without a soul. Whoever entrusts his soul to stone for safekeeping, and himself keeps watch over it no longer, truly he will be inconstant in the world as an aspen's shadow.
We have built a temple to God, say the vanished ones, and paid our debt. From now on we are debtors only to ourselves. We have given to God what is God's; now we shall give to ourselves what is ours.
O wretched ones, what need has God of a temple, if you have no need of it? What is your temple to Him, for whom it is not too cramped in a single grain of sand nor too spacious in the starry universe? Can the homeless build a house for the Master of all builders?
The Builder taught your forefathers, and you yourselves, to build temples to Him, for they are needful to you and not to Him.
Building for Him, you build by Him out of yourselves. For the earth can do nothing for Him without Him.
Building your best for Him, you show an example to your soul, of what she must build within herself.
Building for Him better than for your own body, you show an example to the soul, that she too may build herself a dwelling firmer, more exalted and more radiant than the body needs — and than the body.
Building for Him, you prove that your soul has not forgotten everything, nor reconciled herself to the hovels of the body.
You build costly edifices for Him, to remind the soul that she is destined for a royal palace, and not for tents of clay.
You build not a house for Him, but an image for your soul, and a book, and a remembrance for your soul.
The Lord is overflowing with mercy, and He descends into your temples of stone, to meet with your souls.
But, O wretched ones, what will become of your temples, if your soul neither beholds nor heeds the example? If the domes of your temples are forever higher than your souls? If the breadth of your temples is forever broader than the narrowness of your souls? What will become of your temples?
If the candles in your stone temples are forever brighter than the thoughts of your mind? If the myrrh and frankincense are forever more fragrant than the fragrance of your heart? What will become of your temples?
If your altars are forever more radiant than all the sanctuaries of your souls? If the splendor of your liturgies is forever greater than the splendor of your souls? If the echo of prayers in your temples finds more resonance in the walls of stone than in your souls? What will become of your temples?
They will become dead monuments of dead souls. And when they become that — when they cease to be an example of the soul's building and become pride — truly not one stone will remain upon another. And you, O wretched ones, will wander like the shadows of those who built knowing what they were building and why; and you will dance through the world, inconstant as an aspen's shadow.