Shalt thou build me a house for me to dwell in? for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.

After receiving this message, David, the drawing power of love, began gathering material for Solomon's Temple. Jehovah told David that he could not build the Temple because he was a man of war. The temple of God is man's body ("Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit"), but if man has not complied with the law of permanent body building, he is like the nomadic Children of Israel; he goes from body to body and from tabernacle to tabernacle.

Except Jehovah build the house. They labor in vain that build it.

The tents and the tabernacles that the Children of Israel built for Jehovah represent the transitory bodies of flesh. The Lord has merely "walked" in these flimsy temples; they have not afforded an abiding place for Spirit, because of their unsubstantial character. The underlying weakness of the tent body was its lack of faith in the inhabiting soul. A new consciousness of the indwelling spiritual substance and life was necessary, and a man was chosen to bring it forth. This man, named Abraham, represents obedience and faith. His original name was Abram, which means "exalted father." The name is identified with the highest cosmic principle, the all-pervading, self-existent spiritual substance, which is the primary source of the universe.

Abraham was tested again and again, to the end

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