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People may think we dream when we thus propose to read God's Word as it is written; but he has anticipated all their rationalizing and scepticism. The Sitter upon the throne saith, "WRITE, BECAUSE THESE WORDS ARE FAITHFUL AND TRUE." There can be no mistake about it. God knew how to say what he meant, and he knew the meaning of what he did say. And to what he has said, he affixes his own infallible seal, that the words are "faithful and true." Here, then, let us rest until their fulfillment comes.
Revelation 21:9-27
(Revised Text.) "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and he talked with me, saying, Hither, I will show thee the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit on to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God; her brightness like a stone most precious, as a jasper stone, crystal-clear; having a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel; from the east three gates, and from the north three gates, and from the south three gates, and from the west three gates. And the wall of the city having twelve foundation-stones, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that spoke with me had a measure, a golden reed, that he might measure the city, and her gates, and her walls. And the city lieth four-square, and her length is as great as her breadth. And he measured the city with the reed to the extent of twelve thousand stadia. The length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal. And he measured her wall (height) of a hundred forty-four cubits, measure of a man, which is of an angel. And the construction of her wall jasper, and the city pure gold, like to clear glass. The foundation-stones of the wall of the city adorned with every precious stone. The first foundation-stone, jasper, the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius, the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrisoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates twelve pearls, each one of the gates separately was out of one pearl. And the street of the city pure gold as transparent glass. And a temple I saw not in it, for the Lord God the All-Ruler and the Lamb is its temple. And the city hath not need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they should illumine it, for the glory of God lighted it, and the Lamb the lamp of it, and the nations shall walk by means of the light of it. And the kings of the earth bring their glory to (or, into) it. And its gates shall not be shut by day, for night shall not be there. And they shall bring the glory and the reverence of the nations to (or, into) it. And there shall not enter into it anything common (or unclean), nor he that doeth abomination and falsehood, but only they that are written in the book (or scroll) of the Life of the Lamb."
One of the most remarkable paradoxes of the Church of our times is its abhorrence of materiality in connection with the Kingdom of Christ and the eternal future, while practically up to its ears in materialism and earthiness. Were one of the old Christians of the apostolic age to revisit the world to take a look at our modern Christianity, I think he would be greatly puzzled to understand how, under the guise of spirituality, the whole Church is permeated and loaded down with carnal philosophies, hopes, and aims. Remembering the sublime simplicity of the ancient times, when the Church was set, like a golden circlet, on the head of the King of Glory-in contact everywhere with divinity, he would be amazed to see how that circlet has been divorced from its original setting, stained with the flesh, and pushed into the morasses and bogs of this world, while earthly glories-crowns, mitres, tiaras, wealth, and secular consequence-are looked to and worshipped everywhere as the insignia of what in sad mockery is called a" spiritual "kingdom (Would he not wonder to find Christians locating their most orthodox rejoicing in monarchs, in popes, patriarchs, bishops, sect leaders, numbers, luxurious arts, boastful speeches, worldly orators, secular education, march of intellect, and a fancied progress toward a "spiritual" millennium of mere secularism, to merge at last into an empty and impossible heaven! And venturing to inquire of some of our popular preachers, whether this is thought to be the proper waiting for the Lord from heaven-the way to pray "Thy kingdom come"-the method by which to realize the blessed
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