as the fitting reward of a nobler and less grovelling spirit; he, too, urged the duty-so homely, so obvious, yet so rarely accepted that every man and every nation should do the one work set before them at the special time of their existence.

The two leaders on whom these expectations were concentrated, were now, as throughout the period of the return, the Prince Zerubbabel and the High Priest Joshua. The Prince occupies the chief place in the eye of the older Prophet, the Priest in the eye of the younger Prophet, who was himself of priestly descent.' They, naturally, were the chief objects of the machinations of the Samaritan adversaries, and it would seem that an accusation had been lodged against them in the Persian Court. Regardless of this they were pressed by their prophetical advisers to proceed in their work; and were encouraged by every good omen that the prophetic lore of the period could produce.

The splendid 2 attire of the High Priest, studded with jewels, had been detained at Babylon, or, at least, could not

4

be worn without the special permission of the King; and until Joshua the High the accusations had been cleared away this became still Priest. more impossible. But the day was coming, as it was seen in Zechariah's dream, when the adversary would be baffled, the cause won, and the soiled and worn clothing of the suffering exile be replaced by the old magnificence of Aaron or of Zadok. He, with the Prince Zerubbabel, were to be together like two olive-trees on each side of the golden candlestick. For these were destined the crowns which, by a happy coincidence, were at this moment brought as offerings from the wealthy exiles of Babylon.

5

But Zerubbabel was still the principal figure. According

1 See Kuenen, ii. 214. But this

is modified by Ewald's view.

2 Zech. iii. 1-5.

1 Esdras iv. 54; Ewald v. 85.
For the importance of the High

Priest's clothes see Lecture XXXVI.,
XLIX.

Zech. iv. 1-5 (so Ewald).
Zech. vi. 9-14 (Ewald).

Zerub. babel.

he himself was at this crisis in the

Of

to a later tradition
court of Darius, and labouring for his country's good.
this the contemporary history knows nothing. But, whether
in Persia or in Palestine, he was still the hope and stay of all.
'Seed of promise sown at Babylon' (as his name implied),
he was the branch, the green sprout, that should shoot forth
again from the withered stem of Jesse. The expectation of
a royal succession of anointed kings did not cease till
Zerubbabel passed away. But his memory was invested
with a nobler than any regal dignity. He was the layer of
the foundation-stone. 6 The hands 3 of Zerubbabel laid
the foundation of this house, and his hands shall finish it.'
The foundation-stone which had been laid amidst such small
beginnings was the pledge of all that was to follow. On it
were fixed the seven eyes of Providence. The day of its
dedication was the day of small things' that carried with it
the hope of the great future. He stands forth in history as
an example of the sure success of a lofty purpose, secured
by the reverse of the Fabian policy-not by prudently wait-
ing for results, but by boldly acting at the moment. He
and characters like his are truly the signet rings by which
the Eternal purposes are sealed. By no external power, but
by the internal strength of a determined will, as by the
breath of the wind of heaven that sweeps all before it, was
every obstacle to be surmounted. Who art thou?' said the
loyal and courageous Prophet, confronting the Hill Difficulty
that rose before him like Mount Olivet. Who art thou,
O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a
level plain.' It was the same doctrine as that which, in a
simpler but sublimer form, and with a far more extended
fame, has been placed in the mouth of Zerubbabel himself in

5

a later tradition, which represents him, in the Court of the
Persian King at this very juncture, in answer to the chal-
lenge to name the strongest of all things, as having replied
in words which in their Latin version have become prover-
bial: Great is the Truth and stronger than all things..
'wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are wicked...
but the Truth endures and is always strong

6

'there is no accepting of persons or rewards

With her

she is the

'strength, kingdom, power, and majesty of all ages. Blessed

be the God of Truth.' That is a truly Messianic hopeinto that secret the 'seven eyes' may well have looked. It is the doctrine especially suited to every age, in which, like that of the Return, intrinsic conviction is the mainstay of human advancement.

The long-expected day at last arrived. The royal decree cleared away all obstacles. The mountain had become a 'plain.' In the sixth year of Darius, on the third day of the month Adar, the Temple was finished.2

3

tion of the

B.C. 516,

Of this edifice, the result of such long and bitter anxieties, we know almost nothing. If the measurements indicated in the decree of Cyrus were acted upon, the Comple space which it covered and the height to which it rose Temple, were larger than the corresponding dimensions of its prede- March. cessor. It must have been in the absence of metal and carving that it was deemed so inferior to the First Temple. The Holy of Holies was empty. The ark, the cherubs, the tables of stone, the vase of manna, the rod of Aaron were gone. The golden shields had vanished. Even the High

11 Esdras iv. 33-41, 'Magna est veritas et prævalet'-altered in the proverb into the yet stronger phrase, 'prævalebit.'

2 Ezra vi. 15.

3 Ezra vi. 3. Perhaps these are specified as the limits not to be exceeded (Professor Rawlinson in

Speaker's Commentary on Ezra).

The ark was supposed either to have been buried by Jeremiah on Mount Sinai (2 Macc. ii. 5) or to have been carried up into Heaven (Rev. xi. 19), there to await the coming of the Messiah. See Ewald on Rev. ii. 17.

1

Priest, though he had recovered his official dress, had not been able to resume the breastplate with the oracular stones. Still, there was not lacking a certain splendour and solidity befitting the sanctuary of a people once so great, and of a religion so self-contained. The High Priest and his family were well lodged, with guest chambers and store chambers on a large scale for the Temple furniture. The doors of the Temple were of gold. In three particulars the general arrangements differed from those of the ancient sanctuary. With the rigid jealousy which rendered this period hostile to all which approached the Canaanite worship, there were no more to be seen in the courts those beautiful clusters of palm, and olive, and cedar, which had furnished some of the most striking imagery of the poetry of the Monarchy, but which had also lent a shelter to the idolatrous rites that at times penetrated the sacred enclosure. No tree,' 'no' 'grove,' we are told, was to be seen within the precincts.' Another feature characteristic of the period was the fortresstower built at the north-western corner of the sanctuary, which, serving in the first instance as a residence of the Persian governor, became in later days the Tower of Antonia, from which, in like manner, the Roman garrison controlled the proud population of Jerusalem. Like to this was the sign of subjection to the Persian power preserved in the Eastern gate of the Temple, called the Gate of Susa, from its containing a representation of the Palace of the Persian capital. Thirdly, the court of the worshippers was divided

6

for the first time into two compartments, of which the outer enclosure was known as the court of the Gentiles or Heathens. It is difficult to say to which of the two counter-currents of the time this arrangement was due. It may have been that now, for the first time, the offerings from the Persian kings and the surrounding tribes required more distinctly than before a locality where they could be received, and that the enlarged ideas of the Prophets of the Captivity were thus represented in outward form; or it may have been that, with the exchange of the free spirit of earlier times for the rigid narrowness of a more sectarian age, there was a new barrier erected.1

The consecration of the new Temple was not delayed, like that of Solomon, to meet the great autumnal festival of the Jewish year. It was enough that it should coincide with the earlier, yet hardly less solemn, feast which fell in the spring -the Passover. There was a general sacrifice of 100 oxen, 200 rams, 400 lambs; but the victims which attracted most attention were twelve venerable goats, chosen to represent the twelve tribes, as an indication that the whole nation, though only represented in Judah and Benjamin, still claimed the sanctuary as their own.2

3

character

It was a season of universal festivity. A few months Festive before its close a deputation from Bethel had come to of the enquire whether the four days of fasting and mourning occasion. established during the Captivity were still to be observed; and the answer of the Prophet was an indignant repudiation of these religious mockeries of sentiments which were not felt. Even during the exile they had been but hollow observances-now they were still more unreal." In the later

1 Ezra vi. 19, 22, 17.

Ezra vi. 17.

Zech. vii. 2, 3, 5; (Heb.) viii. 19. • See Lecture XL.

It was the same moral as that

which forbade the new garment to be
patched to the old, or the new wine
to be poured into the old vessels,
Matt. ix. 15, Similia similibus conjun-
gantur