Summary Of The Living Temple

In “The Living Temple”, Holmes utilizes various scenes to demonstrate that God’s spirit creates and perpetuates the life of creation. Holmes especially shows the refreshing effects that God brings to counter the decay of life, and he also touches upon the juvenescence that God sparks within all of nature. Throughout “The Living Temple”, this reinvigorating spirit flows through nature to bring fulfillment and harmony in all occurrences, so that through his creation, God may be worshipped and revered for the love with which he created the whole universe. Holmes shows God’s enlivening spirit through the essence of lightning and the chaos of the primordial earth. He writes, “Think on the stormy world that dwells / Locked in its dim and clustering cells! / The lightning gleams of power it sheds / Along its hollow and glassy threads!” (Holmes ll. 45-8). When earth was newly created, its atmosphere was characterized by intense heat, toxic gases, erupting volcanoes amidst boiling seas, and bright flashes of lightning within the dense clouds. Using

In exemplifying this theme, he uses a scene of water, stating, “Whose streams of brightening purple rush, / Fired with a new and livelier blush, / While all their burden of decay / The ebbing current steals away” (ll. 11-4). The flowing water depicted in this scene is slowed by the debris and sediment which accumulate along its bottom and sides. Because of this “burden of decay”, the water’s life does not fulfill its potential and starts to become stagnant. However, the sunset’s colorful reflection on the water’s surface as well as the persistent current are exemplary of God’s spirit and refreshing powers within nature. God reflects his spirit upon the water and controls the current to strengthen and continue its youthful flow despite the obstructions which deter its spirited