tinguish
between form and substance. The Temple was the centre point of the
kingdom of God on earth, the place of meeting between God and men, the
place of sacrifice. The fulfilment of the prophecy is not to be found in
any house made with hands, but in the true Temple which Jesus Christ has
builded. He in His own humanity was all that the Temple shadowed and
foretold. It is in Him, and in the spiritual Temple which He has reared,
that Haggai's vision will find its full realisation, which is yet
future. The powers that issue from Him shattered the Roman empire, have
ever since been casting earth's kingdoms into new moulds, and have still
destructive work to do. The 'once more' began when Jesus came, but the
final 'shaking' lies in front still. Every smaller revolution in thought
or sweeping away of institutions is a prelude to that great 'shaking'
when everything will go except the kingdom that cannot be moved. Its
result shall be that the treasures of the nations shall be poured at His
feet who is 'worthy to receive riches,' even as other prophecies have
foretold that 'men shall bring unto Thee the wealth of the nations'
(Isaiah lx. 11; Revelation xxi. 24, 26).

In that true Temple the glory of the Shechinah, which was wanting in the
second, for ever abides, 'the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father'; and in it dwells for ever the dove of peace, ready to glide
into every heart that enters to worship at the shrine. Jesus Christ is
not the 'desire of all nations' which shall come to the Temple, but is
the Temple to which the wealth of all nations shall be brought, in whom
the true glory of a manifested God abides, and from whom the peace of
God which passeth all understanding, and is His own peace too, shall
enter reconciled souls, and calm turbulent passions, and reconcile
contending peoples, and diffuse its calm through all the nations of the
saved who there 'walk in the light of the Lord.'

* * * * *

ZECHARIAH

DYING MEN AND THE UNDYING WORD

'Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for
ever? 6. But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My
servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your
fathers?'-Zechariah i. 5, 6.

Zechariah was the Prophet of the Restoration. Some sixteen years before
this date a feeble band of exiles had returned from Babylon, with high
hopes of rebuilding the ruined Temple. But their designs