sackcloth, for white robes. "I beheld a great multitude, which no man
1. They have a royal crown. Rev 2:10. "I will give you a crown of life." A crown is the sign of royal power. This crown is not lined with thorns—but hung with jewels; it is a never-fading crown! 1 Peter 5:4.
2. The saints in heaven have their royal robes. They exchange their sackcloth, for white robes. "I beheld a great multitude, which no man could number, clothed with white robes." Rev 7:9. Robes signify their glory, white their sanctity.
3. They sit with Christ upon the royal throne. Rev 3:21. We read in 1 Kings 6:32, the doors of the holy of holies were made of palm-trees, and open flowers covered with gold — an emblem of that victory, and that garland of glory, which the saints shall wear in the kingdom of heaven. When all the titles and ensigns of worldly honor shall lie in the dust—the saints' honor shall remain.
(7) In the kingdom of heaven we shall have a blessed REST. Rest is the end of motion; heaven is the blessed center where the soul acquiesces and rests. In this life we are subject to unquiet motions and fluctuations. "We were troubled on every side" (2 Cor 7:5). We are like a ship on the sea having the waves beating on both sides; but in the kingdom of heaven there is rest. Heb 4:9. How welcome is rest to a weary traveler! When death cuts asunder the string of the body— the soul, as a dove, flies away, and is at rest. This rest is when the saints shall lie on Christ's bosom—that hive of sweetness, that bed of perfume.
(8) The saints in the kingdom of heaven shall have their BODIES richly bespangled with glory. They shall be full of brightness and beauty. As Moses' face shined, that the people were not able to behold the glory (Exod 34:30); so the bodies of the saints shall shine seven times brighter than the sun, as Chrysostom says; they shall have such a resplendence of beauty on them, that the