to the gates of the rebuilded Jerusalem upon earth (Ezek. 48:31–34),
They are incorruptible. Their light does not grow dim, nor their rich hues grow wan, through age. They are unchanging. What, then, must be the security, the gladness of the ransomed, when once within that city! Safe within these everlasting walls of jasper, what sorrow, what evil, what change can reach them! Safe for ever—safe in such a home —safe within such bulwarks, how they shall exult and praise! Let us try in this day of evil, even outside these glowing walls, to anticipate the joy and the praise. We shall not have to remain long outside, in this land of Meshech and in these tents of Kedar, for He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Even in this strange country let us sing the Lord's song, that we may cheer the way, and perhaps attract others by the melody. Instead of saying, as one of the olden time has done—
"How can I sing sweet Zion's songs
On this side Zion's hill?"—
let us, with Jerusalem before us, though still in the distance, take up David's pilgrim-psalm, "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts!" foredating the time when standing within God's house we shall say, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand."
4. Its gates.—In number they are twelve (chap. 21:12), corresponding to the gates of the rebuilded Jerusalem upon earth (Ezek. 48:31–34), which is made after the pattern of the heavenly city, underneath which it is placed, so that side answers to side, and gate to gate, in the upper and in the lower city, just as if they were two spacious chambers in one vast palace, the one resting on the other, and the communication between them carried on by the ladder which Jacob saw (Gen. 28:16). Then shall heaven and earth be one, though still distinct in nature and in position, just as the tabernacle was truly one though subdivided into three;—the "holy of holies," with its rent veil, answering to the heavenly Jerusalem with its open gates; the "holy place," answering to the earthly Jerusalem with its nation of priests
(Is. 61:6), "accomplishing the service of God;" and the "outer court," answering to the residue of the earth with all its Gentile worshippers.
On the gates of the city are written "the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel" (chap. 21:12); just as on the corresponding gates beneath in the lower Jerusalem, of which it is said "the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel" (Ezek. 48:31– 34), shewing the full sympathy, during the millennial age, between the two companies of redeemed men, and the orderly arrangements for communication between the cities.
At the gates were "twelve angels" (21:12). What shall we call them? Watchers—sentinels—"doorkeepers in the house of our God"— appointed to keep ever open these "everlasting gates"? Are they not "ministering spirits," stationed there still to minister for them who have entered into that salvation of which they were here made the heirs? And are they not standing there to minister to the King of glory, when he would go out or come in, as he himself announced, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man"? (John 1:51.) Thus shall angels in the ages to come exercise their wondrous ministry both to the redeemed sons of men, and the redeeming Son of man. On earth one of them opened the prison-gate to an apostle (Acts 12:10); another opened the rocky gates of Joseph's tomb to the rising King; and so in the heavenly mansions it is at the gates that we find them still in patient ministry of unwearied love.
These gates are of pearl—"the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl" (21:21). It is of "carbuncles" that the gates of the earthly Jerusalem are said to be made (Is. 54:12), as if on earth the colour of the blood and fire were still to be retained, as a memorial upon the gates. But in the "heavenly places" this fiery hue passes off, and is exchanged for white; the scarlet becomes snow, the crimson wool; and the most spotless of gems is made to furnish gates for the celestial city. How perfect the picture! The varied hues of the twelve foundations, the jasper-glow of the massive wall, and then the