I will bring forth my servant the Branch." Isaiah foretells him as the branch growing out of the roots of Jesse: Jeremiah as "the righteous branch, raised unto David, who is also a king that shall remain and prosper, and whose name shall be the Lord our Righteousness." The expression, indeed, being a figurative one, may undoubtedly have such an application to Joshna as to convey an intimation of the prosperous issue of the work in which he was engaged; just as the crown, placed on his head, shadowed forth the glory and happiness to which God would raise up their then prostrate church and nation. Both were announced in this emphatic form, as designating by a name, and not by a circumstance, the person intended: Not "he shall flourish as the Branch;" but "his name is the Branch." No enlightened Israelite of that day would fai to recognize in it, him to whom his hope so fondly turned, amidst all the desolations of Sinai, as the man of God's right hand, the branch that he had made so strong for himself.

Let us glance at the remaining point. He "shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne." Here we lose sight altogether of the son of Josedech, and gaze at once exclusively on the great High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; for at what period of the Jewish history was there ever a priest of Aaron's line sitting and ruling upon a throne? The sceptre belongs to Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood. Once only, but that at a period long before the appointment of the Levitical priesthood, we read of a glorious and mysterious person who was at the same time king of Salem and priest of the Most High God: but this very combination of dignity marked him out as belonging to an order totally distinct from that of Aaron's priesthood, and as a typical representative of one who was to rise after Aaron; for he is foretold by David while Aaron's priesthood was established; and yet not only was called after the order of Aaron, but was afterwards to supersede that order. The prophecy of the text coincides thus with that of Psalm cx., where it is said of Joshua, that he shall be a priest upon his throne. It clearly teaches, that no other Joshua is really intended, than he to whom "the Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek ;" and this by the confession of all, both Jews and Christians, is the Messiah.

HIM

The person spoken of being thus ascertained, beyond all contradiction, to be our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we are prepared to enter with a livelier interest, in the second place, into the consideration of THE WORK ASSIGNED "He shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord." When the Son of God became incarnate, he grew up as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. In all the circumstances of his birth, his infancy, his childhood, and his early manhood, we discover but scanty intimations of the great work which he came into the world to accomplish. Witness the infirmity, poverty, and contempt, the contradiction of sinners, the scoffs of his brethren, the blasphemous revilings of those who were the wisest and most exalted in the world's esteem: we can discover in all this, consummated as it was by that awful and bitter death of the cross, the most suitable preparation, and the surest forebodings of that work of mighty and mysterious grace, by which salvation was to be brought to our world, man to be redeemed from the power of darkness, and God glorified in reconciling the world to himself. We can discern through the cloud of thick darkness that broods over Gethsemane

and Calvary, the future glories of the Conqueror coming from Edom, “glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength." But thus was the incarnate Saviour growing up out of his place, and laying broad and deep the foundation of a work of love, the praises of which are to resound through everlasting ages. "It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." He thus learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and was made perfect through suffering; and was thus furnished with every qualification for a perfect Saviour, with which in no other way he could have been furnished. And while hell was raging against the Son of God's love, and earth was lending her feeble aid to help forward the malignant purposes of that unnatural and sinful confederacy, He that sitteth in the heavens laughed at their accursed devices, which were most effectually bringing about what his hand and his counsel had determined before the world begun: his blessed Son was only drinking of the brook in the way, that he might the more gloriously and triumphantly lift up his head. He was growing up amidst opposition and difficulty, and conflict, and in the face of them all, and by means of them all, was carrying forward the counsels of his will, and advancing the great end for which he had come into the world.

And what was the work which the Father had given him to do? It was to build the temple of the Lord. The typical image of this was represented in the work in which Joshua was at this time engaged; and the subordinate design of the whole transaction to which the text refers, was, to encourage Joshua in his important work. But the temple he built, being but a shadow of good things to come, was again to be removed, as Solomon's had been before, and its glory to be done away. It would make way, in the fulness of time, for that other tabernacle, which the Lord built, and not man; and this is the true and spiritual Church of God, which is spread over all ages and all nations, which consists of all believers, all faithful men, and sanctified persons, throughout the world, gathered out of the vast multitudes of mankind, and brought into one mystical body, the members of which, for the most part, are unknown to each other by face during their earthly pilgrimage, but will all be united in the worship of the heavenly sanctuary through all eternity.

It is the glory of the Son of God to be the builder of this temple: "Even he shall build the temple of the Lord." The materials of which it is composed are sinners, who are by nature dead in trespasses and sins, and in that state are far off from God, alienated from the life of God, having the understanding darkened, the mind blinded, and the heart hardened and corrupt. Whether the Gospel finds men in the polished society of a Christian land, or debased in the revolting mystery of the New Zealand savage, or led captive by Satan in the thousand chains of Hindoo superstition, whatever difference there be in the outward form and circumstances of the case, there is none whatever in those essential elements of character with which the Gospel has to deal. It finds him lost, guilty, and spiritually dead; it addresses its gracious invitations, its lifegiving message, to his soul. But he is dead, and cannot hear; he hears indeed, but understands not. And can these dry bones live? And is God able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham? Yes; when the great Master Builder sends forth the mighty energy of his Spirit, the dead in sins are

quickened into life, the stony heart is taken away, the scales fall from the eyes, and the veil from the heart, and the Gospel is made the power of God unto salvation. Sinners thus converted are made living stones, and, coming in faith to Christ, the living foundation stone, they are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And such sacrifices of holy and spiritual worship have been offered up, and are offered up to God continually, in every place where the Gospel has been preached in faithfulness and in simplicity, and combined, as in all such cases it will be, with the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power. And herein is exercised the power of our Redeemer's grace--that he can soften and subdue the most stony hearts, and build the most unpromising materials, and make them subserve his purpose in building the temple of the Lord. The triumphs of his Almighty power are displayed, not only in the Church, which for ages has been planted in our Christian land, but in the work which is going on before our eyes, in our own Missions, and those of other societies, in much people added to the Lord from among idolaters of every class and caste, from every kind and degree of spiritual degradation. For the demonstration of this missionary service is abundant with many thanksgivings unto God; and the same hallelujahs are continually ascending from the remotest regions of the earth, in harmony with those of heaven.

For in the continual progress of this work of our Redeemer, all the scattered Churches throughout the world, and all the individuals who are made the subjects of his quickening grace, are brought together, and united in one spiritual building; all are by faith united to Christ, and, therefore, uuited to each other in him. However separated by seas and continents, however diverse from each other in language and manners, in habits of living, and modes of thinking, and possessing, in their outward relations, no common bond of sympathy or union, they are all one in Christ Jesus. They are one body, of which Christ is the head; they are builded together in him, for an habitation of God through the Spirit; they are all sanctified together by that one Spirit; they have communion together, in the unconscious mingling of their prayers at the same mercy-seat; they have one Lord, one faith, one baptism; they are heirs of the same eternal inheritance beyond the grave; and in their passage through the wilderness, they have their souls refreshed with living waters from the same spiritual rock, which, as it flowed to ancient Israel in all their wanderings, so now, and in every age, is present in every part of the great wilderness, wherever there is a Church united in the communion of the body of Christ, or an individual to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, in faith and love.

And it is most delightful to look abroad upon our world, groaning as it is under the desolating ravages of sin, and travailing in pain together, with the fierce contests of the selfish passions of man, and to contemplate it in a holier character, as the field in which the seed of life is sown, and the great harvest of God's glory is ultimately to be reaped; to see the word of Almighty grace extending its triumphs to the utmost ends of the earth, to gather in the heirs of salvation, out of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues; so that there is scarcely a known language on the face of the earth, in which the praises of Jesus have not been sung, and the wonders of redeeming love proclaimed. The flow of the nations to the mountain of the Lord's house, has already commenced; the North has given up her sons to God, and the South has not held back; the East has beheld the rising beams of the Sun of

even now,

Righteousness; and the fettered slave of the West, has exulted in the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free. Thousands, and tens of thousands, under the whole heavens, have been quickened from the death of sin, by the power of the Spirit, and have turned from idols, to serve the living and the true God. They are the drops before the shower, the first fruits of the full and universal harvest which the Lord of the harvest has promised to his beloved Son; and in his hands the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper, until every stone of the glorious building shall be gathered unto its place; and the temple of the Lord shall rise, in its ample and beautiful proportions, over the face of the whole earth, and he shall bring forth the head stone thereof with shouting, "Grace, grace unto it."

For the foundation on which this temple rests, is one against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. The provision which God has made by his Gospel, for accomplishing this work of grace towards the lost world, and concentrating all the glory of it in his Son, is fully adequate to answer the end designed. The text gives an assurance of this, in the intimation, that "the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Peace is the end proposed, even peace between God and man; and, resulting from this, peace to the guilty conscience of the sinner. We have peace with God; and God, as revealed to believers in the Gospel, is the God of peace. But who is the wonderful counsellor that can devise such a scheme of grace? And what are those councils of deep and mysterious wisdom, by which a guilty and revolted world can be brought into peace and reconciliation with Him whose name is holy? We find an answer, brethren, in the typical circumstances here put upon record; of which, being a typical circumstance, we must search for such an interpretation as is pointed out, at the same time, by the general bearing of the passage, and by its adaptation both to the type and the antetype: and this at once excludes all reference to God and man, as the parties concerned, or to the Father and Son, or to Jews and Gentiles; and absolutely confines us down to one application, namely, to Joshua and Zerubbabel, who, in other pages also of this Prophet, are, by implication, intended, even when one of them only is expressly mentioned; as in the fourth chapter, the vision recorded is declared to be "the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel;" and yet it represents two olive trees, which are "the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."

We are thus, then, directed to Him, of whom both Joshua and Zerubbabel were types, but types in a different relation; Christ, the King of his Church, as represented by the one, and Christ, the Priest of his Church, as represented by the other and between them both the office and work of Christ our Kingand Christ our Priest—the counsel of peace is established. For in no other way than by that wonderful combination in the person of Immanuel, could man be brought into peace with God-in no other way, than by the Son of God undertaking a union of office and character, so apparently incongruous, but ret so beautifully harmonizing. But when he presented himself to the Father, as willing to undertake the one, saying, "Lo, I come," it was promised that he should see of the travail of his soul, by being exalted to the glory of the other. As the High Priest, therefore, of his people, he descends from his heavenly glory, becomes a man of sorrows, is despised and rejected of men, and pours out his soul unto death, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree; and having thus made a full atonement, he arose from the dead, and

ascended on high to make intercession for us. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins. But though he was thus delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification, the counsel of peace is not yet complete: God has opened a door of reconciliation, but man is unable to enter in; being restrained by the stubborn rebellion of the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. But yet fear not, O daughter of Zion; behold thy king cometh unto thee: and having been lifted up on high, he declares, “I will draw all men unto me." For, being now at the right hand exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he pours down his righteous influence into the hearts of his people, and sheds abroad his love in them, and makes them willing in the day of his power; and so subdues them to himself, as his subjects and disciples, that he may reign over them by his grace, and be glorified in their obedience and faith. When thus drawn to Christ, they are brought within the bonds of the covenant of peace; they have communion with God as their Father, in the rich manifestations of his pardoning love, and rejoice in hope of his glory.

In this way does our Redeemer build the temple of the Lord, by the virtue going forth continually from his kingly and priestly offices. Its foundation is laid in the work of his priesthood, in the infinitely precious sacrifice which takes away the sin of the world: his kingly power and glory crowns the work, and erects a superstructure, corresponding to so excellent a foundation. The preachers of his word are sent forth with their high commission, to gather in the outcasts of a guilty world; and by the mighty operation of his Holy Spirit, their word, which is sown in weakness, is raised in power. "Beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace;" "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." In the midst of this great wilderness of temptation and sin, the spiritual temple of the Lord of Hosts is rising before our eyes continually, and the songs of salvation are heard to resound within its sacred precincts, as the prelude to that universal chorus of praise, with which the whole earth shall break forth into singing, when Christ shall sit on the throne of his glory, and the heathen shall be given to him for his inheritance. For the Divine Builder shall not fail, nor be discouraged, until he hath set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his glory.

Thus will he finish the work which the Father hath given him to do: and to this work there is promised, in the last place, AN APPROPRIATE Reward. "He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne." Two particulars are here mentioned, possessing each a deep interest in connexion with the missionary work; the one holding forth our encouragment, the other our duty: He whom we serve in this work is invested with the government, and shall bear the glory.

Christ is invested with the government. He "shall sit and rule upon his throne;""the government shall be upon his shoulders," and "he must reiga until he hath put all his enemies under his feet." When he had laid the foundation of his Church, by the shedding of his blood, the basis on which he rested the commission which he gave to his Apostles, for carrying on the building, was -universal dominion: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." He was himself crucified for witnessing the good confession, that he was a king; and then he sent forth the heralds of