The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-03

farmers boy he had often watched the workmen gathering the harvests. and his own back and arms often had been wearied with binding the sheaves, for on the farm during the harvest time all the men and boys who could carry the scythe were pressed into service. It is a psychological law that when we visions they may be ridlc- ulous or grotesque, but they generally relate to objects familiar to us in our waking hours.
 St. Johns Vision of Heaven.
 When St. John upon the Island of Pat mos caught glorious vision of the ee- lestial capital, the new Jerusalem what was more natural for him than to pattern 1t after the greatest and the most won- derful city his eyes had ever seen? He certainly did not picture heaven as any of the modern cities you and l are aceus- toned to see. He did not think of the New Jerusalem as built upon sand dunes by a beautiful harbor. San Francisco is built beside the tapping watetrs of the Golden Gate of the Pacific. He did not find 1t among the waving palms and the beautiful flower gardens and the orange groves under the shadow of the snow capped mountains of Grayback and San Bernardino, as Is Redlands, the most beautiful city of all California He im- agined the New Jerusalem descending
 
 the Davidic capital was upon hill. Then St John imagines this celestial city snr- rounded by q great wall. Though this wall was glitterlng with myriads of precious stones 1t was the same kind of a wall that encircled the capital of the Holy Land.
 Let us try to imagine the exterior of l the celestial capital which we call heaven as John saw it in vision. I am going to point out to you some of the chief char acteristics of those celestial battlements. At other times we may in fancy under the apostles guidance try to enter those gates and roam over the golden boule- wards and examine the architecture of the mansions In the skies. but today we are going to limit our travels and just study the outer walls of heaven. It is a strange spectacle as the inspired artist pictures 1t. It surpasSes in splendor every wall and portal in the most mag nifieent of European or Asiatic cities. Sometimes as tourists I think we pass too quickly the beautiful carved doors of the great eathedrals of Europe or ig nore the mighty walls of eastern capitals in order to reach the centers of the cities. Let us not make this mistake in reference to heaven. Let us loiter at least one Sab bath day to study the walls which en- circle our future celestial habltaton. And the city lieth four square, and the
  he measured the city with the reed. 12.O0O furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal"
 The Size of Heaven.
 When St. John saw the New Jerusalem looming up In all it's vast proportions he was impressed with the infinite size of heaven. It was place so large that 1t took a reed 1200o furlongs to measure its outside walls Now, when you remember that the furlong is one-eighth of a mile you will see that a traveller must take d journey of 5000 miles to go around it. In other words. If the walls of this great city were stretched out in a straight line they would reach nearly twice across the American continent, from San Francisco to New York. They would be more than three times the distance between London and St. Petersburg.
 Dr. c. A. Goodhart tells us about the vast size of the apocalyptic vision of St. John when he says, Babylon was a great city, about three times the size of modern London Yet. comparing the measurements which Herodotus gives of Babylon with the one St. John gives of the New Jerusalem, we find that the latter would contain 10000 of the for mer." Can your nina grasp what Dr. Goodhart means?
 Well" says some one. do you it- l erally mean that the New Jerusalem l which St. John saw had any such di- mensons as those? Even if we could con ceive of a city so wide and so long we could not imagine it having height from base to summit of 15.000 miles," Mo- you must remember that this was a ysion and as such was symbolical The 12 gates correspond to the P tribes of Israel and to the 12 apostles The fur longs and the foundation stoaes are other sets of 12. I think the apostle intended us to learn from the great cube that the heavenly city was big enough to con- tain all people, of all nations, of all gen eratons, of all times, who have been and will be ceansed from sin by Christs atoning blood. I want to show that pro- vision is made for the widest acceptance of the invitation "Whosoever will' and Is so big that 1t will take in every sinner who comes and bows at the foot of tho cross and who says, as did the publican of old, God be merciful to me sinner And the length and the breadth and the height of 1t are equal"
 The Banquet Hall.