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has been completed, and afterward the gates are set up. This figure accords with the opinion suggested in a previous chapter, that the Jews who renounce the Christian economy will, after that dispensation has been completed, enter into life through the recognition of its fundamental doctrine, viz.: that Christ is the Messiah, and that salvation to man is through his atonement.

The number of the gates, being three, in each angle of the wall, may represent the three dispensations, in all which the children of Abraham have been distinguished—the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian dispensation. In the two former, they alone were the depositories of the knowledge of the true God; and in the latter, their zeal for God was none the less; but it was not according to knowledge, as St. Paul says. It was not consistent with God's plan, and they, in opposing the Christian economy, stumbled. Out of these three dispensations, the tribes of the children of Israel have access to the heavenly Jerusalem through the gates of the wall of the city.

It is well known that the Jews are scattered abroad even to the four quarters of the earth. They mingled with all nations, and are the oppressed and down-trodden in all lands ; but from all quarters of the earth they will come to the great city, the holy Jerusalem. This idea is expressed by three gates on the north, three on the south, and an equal number on the west and on the east, opening out to the four quarters of the earth.

The measurement of the city by the angel shows the equality of its dimensions, the length, and breadth, and hight, being the same, and it lieth four square. This can hardly be supposed to imply anything else than equality amongst the subjects of that heavenly world. None of those distinctions known to earth, which too often exalt vice and depress virtue, will obtain there. The only distinction there will be acquired by the development of man's intellectual powers, in which all will engage without restraint or disability arising

from any law of that government favoring one more and another less.

The city lieth four square, implies that in all its appointments, in its whole economy, there is universal harmony and perfection.

It may sound very strange to the ears of some to talk of law and government in heaven. But they should know that man, in his heavenly state, will be as much a subject of law under the divine government as he is here on earth. His future happiness there, no less than here, requires that he should be a subject of law. Without it, the heavenly state would become monotonous, if not chactic. Government and law are necessary to keep him reminded of his right to the tree of life, and to assure him of the perpetuity of his felicity.

But I do not speak of law in heaven in the sense of a probation. It will not address itself to man's fears as it does now, for there will be no principle of fear in the heavenly world. The government there will ever present to man new and increasing sources of felicity, stimulating him to renewed developments of his high spiritual powers in order to the attainment of them.

Loose and incoherent notions of the heavenly state are extensively entertained even by very good Christians, and when expressed they show a lamentable deficiency in their knowledge of that improvement and dignity, both in the moral and intellectual man, which religion is designed to produce even in the present life.

The idea of the heavenly state, with many, goes no farther than supposing it to be some undefinable locality somewhere in the skies, where God will be seen, where near and dear friends, the former partners of the joys and the sorrows of an earthly existence, will meet together again, never more to part, and where a tumultuous kind of rejoicing will be their unceasing employment.

The scriptures impress upon us, in a variety of modes, the purposes of man's creation, his duty and his destiny; and

they distinctly teach us this fact, that the present life is but the infant state of our being here we take the first feeble steps towards the dignity and glory of our immortal state.

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The purposes of the Christian religion are but poorly understood by those who look to it only as something which is to produce occasional impulses of joy-something to make men feel happy for a season, while they remain contented without those constant developments of increasing moral excellence and vigorous growth of virtuous principles, which are the proper fruits of religion, and the true elements of the Christian's happiness in this life. Opposed to the transitory and fitful seasons of joy which distinguish the religious experience of some, and which the scriptures characterize by the evanescent state of the morning cloud and early dew, we have the solemn injunction of divine inspiration, commanding us to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What is growth but progression, and this progression will be the endless development of man's glorified nature in heaven, and from the continued enlargement and active employment of his moral powers all his happiness there will arise.

But let us now return and take a further view of the glorious city.

If we take the word foundations to signify what we mean by it in its application to buildings, we shall bury all the beauty and richness of the great wall of this city under ground; but this was not the intention or meaning of the prophet in the description he gives of it.

The wall was built of precious stones or gems, twelve different kinds, corresponding with the twelve apostles, so disposed that each stratum of stone was a foundation for another stratum of a different kind. The first layer or stratum which appeared in the wall was the jasper, and when this was laid on it became the foundation for a stratum of a different stone, which was the sapphire; upon this again was laid the chalcedony, and the fourth belt or stratum was the emerald,

and so on until the wall was completed, being built of twelve different strata of precious stones, each differing from the rest in color and quality, and each stratum or belt of the width of twelve cubits. Then the gates of the wall,-each several gate was of one pearl,-mingling their soft, transparent light with the brilliant richness of the wall. And to these we must add the palaces of gold which composed the city; for the city was of pure gold like unto glass; and its street, which was also gold. When the light which shone upon the city, and its walls and gates, was reflected on all sides like a sea of endlessly variegated fire, it must have produced a scene of gorgeous magnificence and grandeur, such as no mortal eye could look upon, and that no mortal mind can adequately conceive of.

The prophet proceeds with his description of the city, and says, (verse 22): And I saw no temple therein. This must do away with all idea that this city is a representation of the church in her militant state.

The religious services of the Jewish temple, as well as those of the Christian Church or temple, were designed to instruct men in the knowledge of God and his law. These temples are necessary in the present life, in man's probationary state.

But in the heavenly state, where man will dwell with God, and behold with open face the glory of God, there will be no need of temples. There will then be no necessity either fr the typical moonlight dispensation of the Jews, nor the su light Christian dispensation; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, and shed the light of divine knowledge upon the ever-expanding powers of the souls of

the redeemed.

Now, for the first time, the prophet speaks of the inhabitants of the city, (verse 24.) He groups them all together in one general term, and says: And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it. Those nations to whom Christ said, when he gathered all the nations before him at

his second appearing, Come, ye blessed of my Father, enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Amongst the nations of the earth there are some renowned for the majesty and grandeur of their kingdoms. But whatever is great, or grand, or glorious, in the kingdoms of the present earth, will be lost and forgotten in the inconceivably greater glory and majesty of the government of that city.

We have no reason to suppose otherwise than that the hosts of heaven are under some such appointment and government as belongs to kingdoms in this present world. "Order is heaven's first law," and this order presupposes government under the glory of God and the Lamb, which lightens the city, imparts knowledge and wisdom to its spiritual inhabit

ants.

The gates of the city are not shut by day, [consequently they are ever open,] for there shall be no night there. The constantly-open gates of the city signify the peace and security which ever reign there, admitting of no apprehension or fear of disquietude from without.

The last verse of the twenty-first chapter states what shall not enter into the city: Nothing that defileth, or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.

An evil principle can only be known by its practical operation; and the prophet, in showing what shall be excluded from that city, instead of saying, all moral defilement, and abomination, and lying, shall be excluded, shows that the most remote principle which could produce such evils will never exist there.

The thoughts of the heart, instead of being evil, as now, will ever remain holy, pure, and in perfect harmony with the divine will.

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