A Sermon

at Tyre , whence came the greater part of the skilled workmen that were employed . The increased dimensions of course increased enormously the amount of costly material , and the walls throughout were lined with cedar , lavishly overlaid with gold . The dimensions of the other temples , that of Zerubbabel and that of Herodwere differentancl certainly not less ; but the

, , estimate of their magnificence is not considered in proportion to their dimensions ; but the elaboration of costly ornament and the beauty of the textile fabrics with which the first temple was lavishly furnished made that the most splendid in the eyes of the people . We can now leave these ancient temples , bearing in mind their pattern and arrangement , ancl proceed to the truths which those types foreshadowed , and which were the highest

manifestations of the original symbols . In the New Dispensation the necessity exists no longer of a fixed place of worship As we might expect , Jesus Himself gave the first intimation of this : "Neither in this mountain , " said he to the woman of Samaria , " nor yet at Jerusalem , shall ye worship the Father . God is a spirit , and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth . " The religious education of the Jews by symbols was at an end : the

need which had once existed for localizing the Divine Presence was to be no longer felt ; for that Presence was now visible upon earth , and had come to fulfil and supersede the pattern of heavenly things , and to be a High . Priest for ever . He also gives the first sign of a symbolicial connection between the Temple ancl Himself . Being asked for a sign of His authority , He said , "Destroy this Templeand in three days I will raise it up , " a '

striking-, declaration for His hearers , who understood it literally : " But He spake of the Temple of His body . " That declaration is the key to the interpretation of the artist ' s design which is set forth in the window which the Freemasons of the town have met here to-day to present to this church . In the larger lights of that window are to be seen illustrated , the first appearance of the Lord in the

temple of His body at His birth ; the destruction of that body on the cross , ancl His own co-operation in bearing that cross ; and the raising and final glorification of it at His Resurrection and Ascension , together with other figures ancl other emblems which are also there depicted , connected with the building of the first and second temples , and with the craft which was honoured in their building—emblems about which we cannot now speak particularly . We come now to the consideration of a practical

questionhitherto we have spoken only of types ancl symbols , ancl things that have passed away . The Tabernacle is not—the Temple is not—the Ark of God ancl the Mercy Seat , and the Sanctuary which contained them , are not . What have we in their stead ? What and where is that place in which we , my brethren , can meet with our God , ancl He with us ? Where is our tent of meeting P Where is our tabernacle of witness ? If we have ever rebelled

against Him , as Aaron ancl Miriam did—if we desire to lay our' cause before Him , like the daughters of Zelophehad—if we catch a spark of the fire of His holy spirit—where is that solemn communion held ? For general congregational worship we meet , it is true , in God's house , in such a temple as this ; ancl Gocl is there , ancl Chist is there , ancl the Holy Ghost is there ; but but many of us on those occasions meet one another rather than Gocl . Those

who attend the services of their church because they feel a certain sense of shame at being absent , or because it is part of their religious programme , or because they cannot realize the presence of God elsewhere—these seem to stand in need of that localization of some fixed object and place of worship , which the Lord Jesus first taught the Jews to dispense with . These would , worshi p in their own favourite churchancl in no otherlike the Jews in

, , Jerusalem , or the Samaritans on their own private mountain . Even now , as then , the Father seeketh those who will worship Him in spirit ancl in truth , seeketh them and often findeth them not . It does not follow that , when a congregation has mot together in a consecrated building , they have come to