Instead, however, of giving up our work and faltering in our diligence, we should be inspired by sorrow to yet greater earnestness in all duty and greater fidelity in all life.
God does not want us to faint under chastening, but to go on with our work, quickened to new earnestness by grief.
Want of faith is another cause which leads many to abandon their life-temples unfinished.

Throngs followed Christ in the earlier days of his ministry when all seemed bright, who, when they saw the shadow of the cross, turned back and walked no more with him.

They lost their faith in him.

It is startling to read how near even our Lord's apostles came to leaving their buildings unfinished.

Had not their faith come again after their Master arose, they would have left in this world only sad memorials of failure instead of glorious finished temples.
In these very days there are many who, through the losing of their faith, are abandoning their work on the wall of the temple of Christian discipleship, which they have begun to build.