Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/366



350 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH

" It does not appear to have any marginal draft at the bottom, and indeed this was not necessary, as the lower part, being sunk in the rock, would always be hidden from view ; but the absence of the lower draft indicates that the block was dressed in the quarry in a somewhat peculiar style, with a view to its being the foundation corner-stone. The draft on the upper margin of the stone is four inches wide. Fixed in its abiding position 3000 years ago, it still stands sure and steadfast, a fitting emblem of the Rock of Ages, that cannot be removed, but abideth fast for ever." l

And in this respect also the corner-stone is a fit emblem of our Lord Jesus Christ. " For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us ; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordi nances ; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace" 2 In spite of mutual prejudice and the otherwise impassable legal and ceremonial gulf that separated the Jew from the Gentile, Christ is the angle at which they both meet to be united as one building, or, even more closely, as the members of one body. This indeed is the connection in which Paul speaks of Christ under this figure in that great scripture from which I have already quoted.

After reminding the Ephesian believers how that formerly they were " Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircum- cision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands, . . . without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world," he proceeds to say :

" But now, in Christ Jesus, ye ivho sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of CJirist. . . . Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God ; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ

1 Recent Discoveries in the Temple Hill of Jerusalem, by J. King, M.A.

2 Eph. ii. 14, 15.