III. ITS FORM.

IV. ITS OBJECT.

V. ITS OCCUPANTS.

The scene of the prophetical transactions which we have to consider, is "the land of Israel." (Ch. xl. 2.) The declarations concerning them were to be made to the "house of Israel" (ver. 4); so that the locality and the people are distinctly identified. They come immediately after the great conspiracy of Gog and Magog (ch. xxxix.) against the well-being and security of the tribes of Israel, and the destruction with which those Gentile nations shall be overwhelmed at the great battle of Armageddon. This is followed by a revelation of the divine love to the Hebrew nation, who hear the voice of the Lord declaring, "they shall know that I am the Lord their God which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen; but I have gathered them into their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." (Ch. xxxix. 28, 29.) The prophet is then conducted by the Spirit of God, and in the visions then vouchsafed to him, is set " upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south." (Ch. xl. 2.) Here we have a correspondence with the prophecies of Is. ii. 2, 3, and Micah iv. 1, 2. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house 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." With this also harmonises the words of Zech. iv. and Rev. xi., which concern the re-erection of the Temple of God. The locality is declared to be "the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." Thus Jerusalem and its neighbourhood is the site and situation of this wondrous structure.

II. ITS EXTENT.

All must be prepared to admit that, judged by the ordinary scale of computation, and the proportions of all buildings which have ever been erected by the hand and design of man, the inspired account which is given in these chapters presents grave difficulties. According to the generally received measurement, the reed with which the angel measured was three and a half yards long. It consisted of six cubits, and each cubit was by a hand's breadth longer than the ordinary cubit. The sacred building is described as being equilateral, each side being five hundred reeds, or measuring one thousand seven hundred and fifty yards. This would make seven thousand yards, or a circuit of more than three and a half miles. This, it must be acknowledged, is so far beyond our generally received impressions as to the capacity of structures erected by man, as to render the subject perplexing. Yet it is not impossible nor impracticable. The same intelligence and perseverance; the same mechanical skill and ingenuity, which have in modern times covered large areas with a succession of massive and imposing buildings, might, by the very condensation of effort, promoted by religious zeal and

holy devotion to the call of JEHOVAH, accomplish such results as are here assigned to the rebuilt Temple. We may acknowledge the difficulty, but there is nothing to justify us in the assumption that it is insuperable, and that it therefore disposes of the opinion that this temple will be material and real. But beyond this, many able scholars contend that this estimate is exaggerated. What we translate "the reed," they affirm is only "the cubit." Thrupp, in his able work on "Ancient Jerusalem," who, as a strong opponent to all the expectations concerning Israel's repossession of their own land, or their national glory, cnnot be accused of partiality, is of opinion that the reduced measureient is the correct one, and would hence make the circumference of the walls of the Temple to be a little more than half a mile. Be this as it may, the description given in this prophecy presents no insuperable objection to the literal fulfilment of all its details.

III. ITS FORM.

It must be admitted by all who have ever taken the trouble to compare what is written in these chapters with the records of the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod, that there is no correspondence either in form or proportion. Hence, it cannot be assumed that in any subsequent structure such a correspondence was either attempted or even partially attained. All the arrangements and details indicated a return to the sacrificial provisions of the Mosaic Law, and are so ordered and appointed as to meet the requirements of a large body of worshippers. A close and careful examination will show that there is a remarkable harmony between the majestic character of this Temple, and the perfection with which all its proportions are laid out. Each compartment is set apart for its special object and use, and at the same time all the various offices for which they are designed are made to correspond and to occupy their right place. Many questions arise under this head, but there is a necessary interweaving of matters which are in some respects dissimilar and distinct, which renders it best that I should at once speak of

IV. ITS OBJECT.

Under what circumstances does the Divine will and voice instruct and require such a wondrous Temple to be built? For what purpose is it to serve? What is to be the nature of the worship to be carried on therein? It is here that a variety of considerations present themselves, which have appeared to some so conflicting and opposed to the spirit and intention of the Gospel of Christ, as to have led to the abandonment of all ideas concerning their literality. But I believe that the misconceptions which have been so general, have arisen solely from the impression that this Temple has more than a local and national significance: that it is for the world at large, and not, as I shall attempt to point out, for the tribes of Israel, and for them alone. It is said in ch. xliv. 9: "Thus saith the Lord; No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel." There are here no Gentile worshippers. great and wondrous temple is, in all its details, devoted to the interests and use of the twelve tribes of Israel. If this point be perceived and acknowledged, it will necessarily relieve us of a large measure of the difficulty and ambiguity which have perplexed inquirers.

This

The appointment and observance of sacrifices demand our first consideration. Of these there is a minute and particular mention. The sin offering-the burnt offering, and the trespass offering reappear, with all their accompaniments of first-fruits and oblations. (Chapters xliii. 18-27, and xliv. 27-31.) If all these things were done by the Hebrew nation in a state of unbelief: if these sacrifices were antecedent to their acknowledgment and acceptance of the Lord Jesus as their promised Messiah, it would be possible to accept such prospects without hesitation. But all this is co-existent with the manifestation of the divine glory and presence, and the bestowal of the Lord's blessing. "The glory of the Lord comes into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is towards the east." "And He said unto me, Son of Man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more despise, neither they nor their kings." (Ezek. xliii. 4, 7.) No language can be more clear and explicit. No expressions could be employed more in harmony with the prophecy of Deut. xxx. 6, 7, concerning the glory of Israel in the latter day:-" And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."

We have thus laid down the following statements: That the tribes of Israel are to permanently repossess their land; that they are to enjoy a glory and a happiness unspeakably greater than had ever been realised since the fall; that, in the land and city to which they are restored, they are to build a Temple of surpassing magnitude and magnificence; that in this Temple the ancient sacrifices are again to be offered; and that, as a pledge and earnest of the divine blessing, the Spirit of the Lord is to occupy this Temple, and it is to be filled with a heavenly glory. I cannot see how these statements can be accepted in anything but their literal sense, and the difficulties seem to me to disappear when we recognise an arrangement that is intended only and entirely to apply to the people of Israel.

And primarily in relationship to the re-institution of sacrifices :-Is it antecedently unlikely or impossible that such should take place according to the Divine will? Many believe that they were offered by our first parents before the fall; that, even in their state of innocence and holiness, they were taught the need of sacrifice for sin, and that it was from the skins of such sacrifices that Adam and Eve were clothed. The voice of prophecy takes up the theme, for when the future glory of Israel is spoken of, we read, "all the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee; the rams of Nabaioth shall minister unto thee, they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory." (Is. lx. 7.) It is true that the inspired apostle, when writing to the Hebrews, declared that "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" (Heb. x. 26); but who can doubt that he was there speaking of the relationship of the individual believer to God; of the Lord Jesus as the only sacrifice and channel of reconciliation; and not to any national relationship which existed between the Hebrews and the

Redeemer of Israel. As therefore sacrifices were enjoined by Jehovah as typical and emblematical of the one great Sacrifice which was "in the fulness of time" to be offered on the Cross; so sacrifices may again be presented to God, as commemorative of that most sacred offering, the value and power of which can never end.

But it must be admitted that, in all the divine arrangements, both in providence and in grace, a distinct object and intention is always to be traced. There is nothing arbitrary; nothing of a fortuitous character in any of the works or ways of God. It is to the design which, it appears to me, the Lord has before Him in the fulfilment of this remarkable prediction, that I wish to invite special attention.

The Hebrew nation are called God's "peculiar people." Our Lord came unto His own, and His own received Him not." They recognised those prophecies which testified of the glory and power of their promised Messiah; but they disregarded those that spoke of His previous sufferings and humiliation. They believed that He would sit upon the throne of His father David; but they did not believe that He would die the death of the Cross to make propitiation for sin. The "remnant according to the election of grace," have ever received these truths in their fulness. But the nation have continued to deny the Messiahship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and will continue to disavow His sufferings and death on their behalf, until that time arrives when they shall welcome His Second Advent, and exclaim, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." There will then be a fulfilment of all their national expectations concerning His promised dominion and glory. But there will have been no previous acceptance of the Son of Man as the great and only efficacious sin offering of which all the types did testify. It is here, I believe, that the restored sacrifices will come in. They are to be commemorative; but it will be a commemoration of peculiar significance and power to the tribes of Israel. They will enjoy the beneficent government of "the King that reigns on Zion's Hill;" but they will also continually recognise in the sacrifices which they now offer in that wondrous Temple the memorial of that love which led Him to become "obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." In short, the restored or converted nation of Israel will, by those sacrifices, commemorate the propitiatory offering of the Lord Jesus, and in that commemoration, acknowledge what they would otherwise have, we may say, practically, no other opportunity of acknowledging, that it has been by His precious blood-shedding that all their national as well as personal blessings have been secured. This gives a point, a power, and a meaning to these prospective sacrifices which would otherwise be inexplicable.

I must now speak briefly of the last point in connection with this Temple; viz.:

ITS OCCUPANTS.

Within its

I have already endeavoured to identify it wholly and entirely with the restored tribes of Israel. They are the only worshippers. It is not intended for the Gentiles: it is only intended for them. precincts minister the priests of the Levitical tribe, who have again been sought out and separated according to the Lord's mind and will. Within these sacred walls again shines resplendently the Shekinah of the divine glory. Over all reigns and rules "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," "in

Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously." Through the eastern gate enters "the Prince; He shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; He shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same." (Ezek. xliv. 3.) But who is the Prince? He cannot be "the Lord of glory " Himself, for He is among those whose duty it is to present sin offerings and all the other services of the sanctuary. (Chap. xlv. 9, and xlvi. 12.) He is Himself a worshipper (chap. xlvi. 2), and He is in the midst of the people when they go in and when they go forth. (Ver. 10.) I can only infer from this, that he will be the lineal descendant of the house of David, and that while the glorified Messiah personally reigns over His people, this Prince becomes His vicegerent or representative, and conducts and guides the people in all the sacred duties of the sanctuary. He exercises an authority and a supremacy which is recognised by the tribes of Israel, who render to him their oblations and reserve for him the divinely appointed portion in the holy land.

To summarise the points which I have endeavoured briefly and imperfectly to state: this Temple is to be built in the latter times; it is to be built by the Hebrew nation on their restoration to their own land; it is to be built by them as believers in the great Redeemer of the world. In this Temple, sacrifices are again to be offered, commemorative of the one perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin once offered on Calvary's Cross. But these sacrifices are to be presented by Israelites alone, who are the sole occupants and worshippers in this sacred edifice, and are appointed in order that they may nationally and continually acknowledge that He who now reigns over them in glory, once suffered and bled and died in order that they might be saved. Over this Temple presides a Prince, and not a High Priest. He is neither a sovereign exercising supreme authority, nor is he a High Priest making an atonement for sin. All these functions are the prerogatives of the great Head of the Church, the High Priest of our profession, the King of Glory. From this holy house a living stream flows through the chasm rent in the Mount of Olives by the second coming of the Son of God; and this stream is the channel of life and fertility wherever it goes. Such an exposition of the probable future may appear to some like the rebuilding of "the middle wall of partition,' between Jews and Gentiles, which the Gospel of Christ has for ever overthrown. But this question has nothing to do with that spiritual relationship by which believers, be they Jew or Gentile, belong to the same redeemed family. These views may seem to be "carnal to others whose expectations partake

more of the unreal than the sublime. But all the works of God's hands are good. He can hallow the material universe, and make all things the receptacle of His presence and blessing. Thus we may anticipate that the renewed and sanctified earth shall regain all that was lost at the fall, and be dignified and rendered glorious by all that is holy and acceptable in the sight of God, and all that can minister to the boundless happiness and enjoyment of man.