Israel." Here is Israel restored to her land with songs of praise.

Then, in Psa. cxlviii. 11, where the Psalmist is invoking all things, by a bold and beautiful apostrophe, to praise the Lord, he cries, " Kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth;" and in ver. 14 he closes with words which can only refer, one would think, to the age to come, because no such condition has obtained along the historic ages: "He also exalteth the horn of His people, the praise of all His saints, even of the children of Israel, a people near unto Him. Praise ye the Lord."

In Psa. cxlix, we have what we would call the inaugural Psalm; for from the whole spirit and phraseology we consider it referable to the time of the Lord's great Epiphany, when He will come and fulfil Isa. xxxv. 4, et seq. The words in ver. 2 of the Psalm suggest this: "Let the children of Israel be joyful in their King." And after enumerating a process of conquest, which corresponds with Rev. xix. 11-14, he concludes: "This honour have all His saints. Praise ye the Lord."

Then in the last Psalm we have a complete hallelujah psalm, closing with-"Let everything which hath breath praise the Lord." The whole strain is the psalmody of the age to come.

Here, we presume, is that of which the incense will be a fitting and suggestive emblem, when "all the ends of the earth shall fear Him" (Psa. lxvii. 7), and when the Lord Jehovah shall fulfil Psa. lxxxix. 4: "Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy

throne to all generations"; then shall it be indeed true,"from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, His name shall be great among the Gentiles," and the heavens shall echo with the sweet cadence of the Millennial song-" And blessed be His glorious name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen " (Psa. lxxii. 19; Isa. lx. 6).

(c) Nor are the omissions which are conspicuous in this temple without meaning or significance, for there is a reason for their absence.

(1) There is no ark of the covenant visible here, and the reason possibly is because all that that sacred chest adumbrated was met in the first advent, office, and mission of Christ. In Him the law was magnified and made honourable. In Him is now hid the life of all believers, both pre-Millennial and Millennial. "Your life is hid with Christ in God." So no ark is needed for Aaron's rod. "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" "All our springs are in Him"; "for it hath pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell." So the Millennial Church, any more than we, will not require the ark to contain the "pot of manna," "for Jesus is the living bread which came down from heaven," to feed both pre-Millennial and Millennial saints. Nor will they require the ark for the mercy-seat any more than we, because Christ is, and ever will be, the true throne of grace the true mercy-seat-the sacred meeting-place between the eternal God and saved man. "For He is the propitiation (or atonement) for our sins, and not

for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world"--this covers the age to come. For these reasons there will be no ark of the covenant, for the conditions of the everlasting covenant have all been met by our divine Surety, and all its provisions are "sure to all the seed" "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David."

(2) Nor is there any VAIL visible in this temple. The reason is, there will be nothing to conceal. The vail was a divinely chosen type of Jesus in His incarnation for redemption. And till that great and sacred event in the world's history-the sacrifice of Christ-it stood visible and complete in all its solemn and significant integrity; but when "the Lamb of God” cried, "It is finished," then "the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from top to bottom"; and through the rent vail and the opened heaven the glory has come, and we now see "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

(3) Nor will there be any golden candlestick in that temple. And possibly the reason is because, while it was by its light the priestly acts of the Hebrew Church of the past age were performed (for there was no other light); yet now, since Jesus has come, who is the true Light, all believers, both of this and of the coming age, will walk in "the light of life" which shines in their hearts, when the Holy Ghost causes "the day to dawn and the day-star to arise." Thus no candlestick is needed. For "when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part is done away."

(4) Nor will there be any table of sherbread. The reason of this must be evident to all, because the bread which was placed on the table was a type of Christ; as the manna in the ark, as the spiritual food of the soul, upon which the great spiritual priesthood must live for ever. But "Christ, our Passover, having been sacrificed for us," we can now keep the feast, and our Millennial brothers, too; "feeding upon that living bread which came down from heaven,” and which if a man eat thereof, he shall not die. Thus they will need no table of shewbread, but will sing as we do now: "Bread of heaven! feed us till we want no more.'

But one thing is very important to notice—that is, the return of the Shekinah glory. It will be remembered that that had no place in the temple of Nehemiah. Ezekiel describes its departure in very remarkable words, in his tenth chapter, and shows how it retired:

"Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD's glory. And the sound of the cherubims' wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when He speaketh. Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were besides them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the

LORD's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above."

Thus Ichabod "the glory is departed"-was written over Jerusalem: and Judah sat sad and solitary-" By the willows of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion" (Psa. cxxxvii. 1). Now, again, in his prediction of this Millennial temple, he shows how it will return: "Afterward He brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: and, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and His voice was like the noise of many waters: and the earth shined with His glory; and the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is towards the east" (Ezek. xliii. 1-4).

1

Prebendary Faber, in his "Sacred Calendar of Prophecy," vol. iii., p. 336, says:—

"The utmost, I think, that can be supposed, consistently with the general tenor of prophecy respecting Christ's Second Advent, is, that during the Millennial period there may shine forth, as of old, the glory of the Shekinah in the temple of the restored and converted Jews at Jerusalem. To this supposition, as a conjecture, I am not disinclined: though its truth, I apprehend, is incapable of antecedent demonstration. We can only say, that as various prophecies may seem to intimate some such matter, so it would, in itself, be perfectly agreeable to the analogy of the two former dispensations.

1 See "Last Vision of Ezekiel," by F. H. White, p. 24.