As we glance back through the dim vista of the ages we see the gradual unfoldment of the temple idea and its various manifestations to humanity. The temple at Jerusalem whose plan has ever been accredited to David, Israel's illustrious king, and its construction to Solomon, was really conceived in the thought of the primitive Israelites who antedated David by some hundreds of years. It is said of Noah that he built an altar and sacrificed unto the Lord,— a fact which indicates that visible symbols of religious ideas were familiar to him. Abraham, also, extolled as the Father of the Hebrew nation, bequeathed to his people the idea of symbolic worship, which, under Moses, assumed the form of a tabernacle. The best of everything was employed in its construction, and it was the symbolic expression of Israel's innermost thought.
The two compartments of the tabernacle were symbolical of the divided thought of Israel, the Jehovistic idea was typified by the holy place with its offerings, which occupied two thirds of the structure, while the deeper spiritual consciousness was symbolized by the most holy place, which was illumined by the Shekinah. Their spiritual consciousness was supported by the manna of Truth. In it the law of Spirit was revealed and the budding rod of constant unfoldment was manifest. By a limited number Truth was dimly perceived, but not to the degree of spiritual understanding which enabled them to enter within the veil. The extreme outer court where the great body of the people were assembled and where the altar of sacrifice and the laver of preparation stood, typified that condition of thought which had risen no higher than penance and external purification. Within this court was the preponderance of Israel's thought, and their system of worship as a whole was but an external presentation of the internal sense of the nation.
The temple that succeeded the tabernacle and which marked the climax of Jewish history, was designed after the same plan and differed only in size and appointments, showing that in religious thought the ideal of the Jews remained the same, merely becoming more stable as their wanderings ceased and their numbers increased. One thousand and eleven years prior to the advent of Jesus, the foundations of the temple were first laid and in this interval the structure underwent many profanations and pillages, being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, rebuilt by Zerubbabel after the return from the captivity, and pulled down and rebuilt by Herod with a magnificence almost equal to that of the original temple. Herod's temple was forty and six years in building, and it was in existence at the time of Jesus. The stone used was white marble and it was quarried and fitted with such exactness that no sound of hammer was heard in its construction. This temple which arose in such beauty and symmetry was the admiration of the world, yet the prediction of Jesus, that not one stone should be left standing on another was literally fulfilled in 70 A.D., when the Roman soldiers completely demolished it. Since then the temple has remained in ruins, although various attempts were made to rebuild it during the early days of the Christian era. One of the most remarkable incidents associated with the building of the temple was the rejection of the stone belonging to the head of the corner. It is stated that when the stones came from the quarry there was one peculiarly shaped stone which was rejected by the builders as having been sent by mistake. It was thus cast out and for forty years, or until the completion of the structure, lay in the place where it was thrown. Time passed on, and when the "head stone of the corner" was wanted it could not be found although it was known to have been sent from the quarry. At last the rejected stone was carefully examined and was found to be the exact fit, and thus the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner. Such is the semihistorical account of the erection of the famous temple at Jerusalem which was conceived in Noah's time, given birth to by Moses, nurtured by David, and reared by Solomon.
