The Temple.

In the Covenant made with David, Jehovah declared that he would raise up one of his sons, who should be also Son of God, and that he should build a temple for his name. When the foundations only of a temple existed in Jerusalem, Jehovah sent Zechariah to Joshua, the son of Josedeck, the High Priest, to say to him, that "the man whose name is the Branch," which he had said should grow up unto David, "should build the Temple of the Lord." "Even He shall build the Temple of the Lord," and that the sons of strangers from afar should come and assist in its erection; when the glory of Lebanon, the fir tree and the pine tree and the box together should be brought to beautify the place of the temple—Zech. vi. 12-15; Isa. lx. 10-13. When the flocks of Kedar and the rams of Nebaioth, should also come up with acceptance on its altar, and the temple itself should be glorified with His glory; when this should come to pass, Zechariah likewise testified that "The Branch" "should bear the glory and should sit and rule upon his throne, and be a priest upon his throne." Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah under the Persians, was at that time rebuilding the Temple, and finished it in the 6th year of page 40 Darius. But Zcrubbabel though a type of Messiah, who was then, so to speak, in his loins, was not named "The Branch," nor did he ever sit and rule upon a throne as king or priest; Therefore, the temple he finished was not the temple referred to. The temple built by Zerubbabel was finally destroyed by the Romans, since when no temple has existed in Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus is admitted on all hands to he "the man whose name is the Branch," but as yet he has built no temple to the Lord. It is true the Christ's mystical body, the Church, is styled a holy temple in the Lord, for a habitation of God through the Spirit. He also called his natural body "the temple" which he would rebuild in three days, and in the Revelations it is said that "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of the New Jerusalem." But this is not the temple described in the 40th, 41st, and 42nd chapters of Ezekiel. The building is architectural there, for its courts and internal compartments, with its furniture and ordinances, are different from the tabernacle and temple built by Solomon and Zerubbabel. It is a structure,^* then, hereafter to be erected in Jerusalem restored, not in Jerusalem the New^† and the builder of it is the Lord, for He saith, "I will set my Temple in the midst of Israel for evermore." He will set it there by "the Branch" whom He hath appointed to build it.

Solomon, Zerubbaijel, and "the Branch" are the great temple builders of the kingdom. The "third" temple which Jesus shall erect on Moriah will be more magnificent than any building that has yet adorned "the City of the Great King." It will be renowned throughout all the earth, and will be frequented as "the Home of prayer^‡ for all nations," who shall "flow into it." And many people shall go and say, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of his ways and we will walk in His paths, for out of Zion, shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem"—Isa. ii. 3. "Because of His temple in Jerusalem shall kings bring presents

^* This is a most important distinction.

^† The New Jerusalem is the Body of the Christ in its perfection. (See Heb. xii.)

^‡ Can these predictions have had an accomplishment, or be spiritualized away into heaven as existing invisible realities, as the theology of the Churches of Christendom assumes.

page 41 unto God"—Psa. lxviii. 29. Six^* things are abolished from the future temple which were indispensable to those under the Law. These are the Laver, the Branching Light Bearer, the Ark of the Covenant, the Cherubim, the Veil, and the Golden Altar of Incense. These are all unnecessary to a service performed by Jesus and His brethren, the sons of Zadok. Having been washed in Baptism before their resurrection, they have no use for the Laver like the sons of Aaron under the law. The Light Bearer of seven^† branches is superseded by their own anointing. They shine like the sun by the spirit glory with which they are invested. They are the many light-bearing branches of the Holy Places, which need no artificial illumination in their presence. The Melchisedek High Priest is himself the Ark of the New Covenant, and with his brethren the Cherubim of glory. He is the Mercy Seat sprinkled with the blood of the New Covenant, which is his own. The law, the manna, and the almond rod is He; the way, the truth, the bread of heaven, the resurrection, and the life. What need has the most Holy Place, of a temple of the Mosaic Ark and its contents, with winged Cherubim, in the presence of a personage so august as He, the very substance of those shadowy things.

The Veil was rent^‡ when his body was broken on the tree. The future temple is neither historical nor typical. It foreshadows no details; but by the building and the "separate place," both west of the Most Holy place, indicates that there is a state beyond the 1,000 years into which they shall be received who may be accounted worthy of eternal life, when sin, and death, and every curse shall be abolished from the earth. Being no monument of the past, the rent Veil repaired is seen only in the scarred substance of the Prince of Israel which it prefigured. He being the anti-type of the Veil, the-type is excluded from the future temple, which will be illustrated by the presence of His glorious body which can be rent no more. "In every place, from the rising to the setting

^* Types and shadows of the law fulfilled in the antitype—the Christ and His brethren.

^† Seven: the symbol of perfection.

^‡ Symbolic of the introduction of another priesthood made after the power of an endless life, the Mosaic system of means had then fulfilled its result, to bring to, the Christ the elect of God.

page 42 sun, incense shall be offered to the name of the Lord, even a pure offering "—Mal. i. 11.

The burning of incense, therefore, will not be restricted to the temple as in the days of old. Prayer is the voice of supplication seeking assistance in times of need. It ascends as incense before the Lord burned by the necessitous; prayer will be made for Israel's kings continually, and will ascend as incense in every place.

But the Christ and His saints will not be necessitous. They will have no wants unsupplied, for they will possess all things. Praise, not prayer, will ascend from the Holy place, therefore there will be no golden altar there on which to burn incense before the Lord.