Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-10-31

IINCl MIC 'S BuSl his DulHtt
door. He saw his own cattle and his
own wheattelds. His dreams were of
familiar scenes. The REGULARITY was
In what these familiar objects did.
The seven lean cattle ate ,up the seven
fat cattle, the seven lean stalks ate
ND the seven fat stalks. The seven
fat cattle represented seven wears of
plenty; the seven lean represented sew
en- years of want, but all were the
same kind Of cattle which Pharaoh's
herdsmen were then tending upon the
royal domains.
When Joseph, the shepherds son,
dreamed his dreams emblcmatic of
his future greatness the picture in his
vision did not show him the glorics Of
an Egyptian premiership. In all prob
ability. living the simple herdsman's
life, he at that time had no concep-
ton Of what a royal court was like.
No, Joseph did not dream Of ermine
aud ~coronets and thrones. He saw
the sun and the moon and the eleven
stars making obeisance to him. He
saw the sheaves of wheat which his
brethren were binding In the fields
bow down and worship his sheaf. He
saw these astronomical and agricul-
tural SMILES because as a shepherd
boy guarding his flock by night he
had often watched and studied the
stars. He saw the sheaves because as
a farmers boy he had often watched
the workmcn gathering the harvests,
aud 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. 1t is a psychological law that
when we see visions they may he ride
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
Patmos caught a glorious vision of the
celestial capital, the New Jerusalem,
what was more natural for him than
to pattern IT after the greatest and the
most wonderful city his eyes had ever
SEEM He certainly did not picture
heaven as any of the modern cities
you and ! are accustomed to see. lie
did not think of the New Jerusalem as
built upon sand dunes by q beautiful
harbor, as San Frcncisco IS built be-
side the tapping waters of the Golden
Gate OF the Pacific. He did not find it
among the waving palms and the beau
tiful flower gardens and the orange
groves under the shadow of the snow
capped mountains of Gray back and
San Bernardino, as is Redlands, the
most beautiful city Of all California.
He imagined the New Jerusalem de
scending from heaven and alighting on
q hill, as the Dayidic capital was upon
Il hill. Then st. John imGgines this
celestial city surrounded by a great
wall. Though this wall was g.itteriny
with myriads Of precious stones, it
was the same Kind of a wall that ell
Circled the capital Of the Holy Land.
Let us try 10 imagine the exterior
Of the celestial capital which we call
heaven as John saw it in vision. | am
going to point out to you some OF the
chief characteristics OF those celestial
b3ttleTcnts. st other times we may
In fancy under he apostles guidance
try TO enter those gates and roam over
the golden bouicyards and examine the
architecture Of the mansions in the
skies, but today we are going to limit
travels and just study the outer
walls Of heaven. 1t is "A strange spec
tacle rs the inspired artist pictures If.
1t surpasses IN sp,cndor every wall
and portal in the most magnificent of
European or ASiatiC cities. Sometimes
as tourists | think We pass too quickly
the beautiful carved doors of the great
cathedrals Of Europe or ignore the
mighty walls of eastern capitals in or
der to reach the crntcrs of the cities.
Let us not make this mistake in ref
erence to heaven. Let us loicer at least
one Sabbath day to study the walls
which encirclc our future celestial hab-
i@tation. And the city lieth four
Equare, and the length is as large as
the breadth, and he measured the city
with the reed, twelve thousand fur
longs. The length and the breadth and
the height OF it are equal"
The Size Of Heaven.
When st. John saw the New Jerusa-
lem looming IN in all its vast proper
tons, he was impressed with the in
finite size of heaven. 1t was a place
SO large that it took a reed 10000 fur
longs to measure its outside walls.
Now. when you remember hat the
furlong is one-ciehth Of n mile you
Will see that a traveller must take Il
journey of 6,0OO 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, compar.
ing the measurements which IIerodo
tus gives OF Babylon with the one st.
John gives of the New Jerusalem, we
find that the latter would contain ten
thousand OF the former" Can your
mind grasp what DR., Goodhart means?
"Well," says some one, do you lit
..oIyu ,1o,,, tl, = tko ~.