Then, dear brethren! amid all the anarchic chaos of this day, when old institutions are crumbling or crashing into decay, when the whole civilised world seems slowly and painfully parting from its old moorings, and like some unwieldy raft, is creaking and straining at its chains as it feels the impulse of the swift current that is bearing it to an unknown sea, when venerable names cease to have power, when old truths are flouted as antiquated, and the new ones seem so long in making their appearance, when a perfect Babel of voices stuns us, and on every side are pretenders to the throne which they fancy vacant, let us joyfully welcome all change, and hopefully anticipate the future.  Lifting our eyes from the world, let us fix them on the likeness of a throne above the firmament that is above the cherubs, and rejoice since there we behold ‘the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it.’  ‘Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee.’

III.  Our text still further reminds us that the Priest-King of men builds among men the Temple of God.

The Prophet and his companions had become familiar in their captivity with the gigantic palaces and temples which Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs had a passion for rearing.  They had learned to regard the king as equally magnified by his conquests and by his buildings.  Zechariah foretells that the true King shall rear a temple more lasting than Solomon’s, more magnificent than those which towered on their marble-faced platforms over the Chaldean plain.

Christ is Himself the true Temple of God.  Whatsoever that shadowed Christ is or gives.  In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead.  ’The glory’ which once dwelt between the cherubim, ‘tabernacled among us’ in His flesh.  As the place of sacrifice, as the place where men meet God, as the seat of revelation of the divine will, the true tabernacle which the Lord hath pitched is the Manhood of our Lord.

Christ builds the temple.  By faith, the individual soul becomes the abode of God, and into our desecrated spirits there comes the King of Glory.  ‘Know ye not that ye are the temples of God?’ By faith, the whole body of believing men ’are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.’

Christ builds this temple because He is the Temple.  By His incarnation and work, He makes our communion with God and God’s dwelling in us possible.  By His death and sacrifice He draws men to Himself, and blends them in a living unity.  By the gift of His Spirit and His life, He hallows their wills, and makes them partakers of His own likeness; so that ‘coming to Him, we also are built up a spiritual house.’

Christ builds the temple, and uses us as His servants in the work.  Our prophecy was given to encourage faint-hearted toilers, not to supply an excuse for indolence.  Underlying all our poor labours, and blessing them all, is the power of Christ.  We may well work diligently who work in the line of His purposes, after the pattern of His labours, in the strength of His power, under the watchfulness of His eye.  The little band may be few and feeble; let them not be fearful, for He, the throned Priest, even He, and not they with their inadequate resources, shall build the temple.