and having made of it golden and silver crowns—­the sign of kingship—­to set them on the high priest’s head, thus uniting the sacerdotal and regal offices, which had always been jealously separated in Israel.  This singular action is explained, by the words which he is commanded to speak, as being a symbolic prophecy of Him who is ’the Branch’—­the well-known name which older prophets had used for the Messiah—­indicating that in Him were the reality which the priesthood shadowed, and the rule which was partly delegated to Israel’s king as well as the power which should rear the true temple of God among men.

It is in accordance with the law of prophetic development from the beginning, that the external circumstances of the nation at the moment should supply the mould into which the promise is run.  The earliest of all Messianic predictions embraced only the existence of evil, as represented by the serpent, and the conquest of it by one who was known but as a son of Eve.  When the history reaches the patriarchal stage, wherein the family is the predominant conception, the prophecy proportionately advances to the assurance, ’In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’  When the mission of Moses had made the people familiar with the idea of a man who was the medium of revelation, then a further stage was reached—­’a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me.’  The kingdom of David prepared the way for the prediction of the royal dignity of the Messiah, as the peaceful reign of Solomon for the expectation of one who should bring peace by righteousness.  The approach of national disaster and sorrow was reflected in Isaiah’s vision of the suffering Messiah, and that prophet’s announcements of exile had for their counterpoise the proclamation of Him who should bring liberty to the captive.  So, here, the kingless band of exiles, painfully striving to rear again the tabernacle which had fallen down, are heartened for their task by the thought of the priest-king of the nation, the builder of an imperishable dwelling-place for God.

To-day we need these truths not less than Zechariah’s contemporaries did.  And, thank God! we can believe that, for every modern perplexity, the blessed old words carry the same strength and consolation.  If kings seem to have perished from among men, if authorities are dying out, and there are no names of power that can rally the world—­yet there is a Sovereign.  If old institutions are crumbling, and must still further decay ere the site for a noble structure be cleared, yet He shall build the Temple.  If priest be on some lips a name of superstitious folly, and on others a synonym for all that is despised as effete in religion, yet this Priest abideth for ever, the guide and the hope for the history of humanity and for the individual spirit.  Let us, then, put ourselves under the Prophet’s guidance, and consider the eternal truths which he preaches to us too.