Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/214

 Peter had just uttered, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ") I will build My Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." And what is the Church but the Temple of the living God, of which the Tabernacle and material Temple in Jerusalem were but types, and in which His fulness and glory shall be eternally manifested? Thus the Apostle Peter, addressing primarily Jewish believers, says: " Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual House "; and in a yet fuller manner, Paul, addressing Gentile believers, writes: " Ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the Chief Corner-stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God in the Spirit" (Eph. ii. 19-22, R.V.). And how glorious is this Temple which " the Man Whose Name is the Branch " is now, by His Spirit through His servants, building! It is He Who, as the Eternal Word, built the material Temple of the Universe, which is filling the minds of men in successive generations more and more with wonder and astonishment. What a spectacle, for instance, do the starry heavens present to us! The more we contemplate them, the more we are lost in wonder at their immeasurable immensity, and the more do our hearts go up in reverent adoration of the God Whose eternity, glory, power, and wisdom they ceaselessly proclaim in language intelligible to every human heart. But the spiritual Temple which He is now engaged in building, when completed, will astonish even the admiring angels, and will throughout eternity show forth to principalities and powers in heavenly places " the manifold wisdom " as well as the infinite grace of God (Eph. iii. 10). But to proceed to the next sentence:

" And He shall bear the glory, or regal majesty"