224 



THE OLIVE LEAF. 



disabilities. And therefore he needed the silent rebuke 

 presented in the vision of the New Jerusalem as a type 

 of the boundless freeness and fulness of the love that 

 passeth knowledge. Unlike the little Jewish capital, 

 type of its narrow creed, the heavenly city was vast as 

 the largest thought or hope could compass, a perfect 

 cube of twelve thousand furlongs, capable of containing 

 all the cities of the world within its circuit Through 

 the earthly Jerusalem no river ran, no highway passed. 

 Its gates were shut for safety and security in its moun- 

 tain fastness. But through the heavenly Jerusalem the 

 broad full river of life flowed ; and through its gates or 

 up the river the nations brought their wealth into it. 

 Through its gates, open to the four quarters of the 

 globe, a multitude which no man could number of all 

 nations and kindreds and people and tongues had 

 entered in. From the east and the west, from the 

 north and the south, they sat down with Abraham, 

 Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. There 

 was a time when the beloved disciple might have felt 

 what Peter felt when the sheet full of four-footed beasts 

 and creeping things was let down before him. The 

 spectacle of aliens from the commonwealth of Israel 

 admitted to the same blessedness as the chosen people, 

 would have tempted him to exclaim, " Not so, Lord." 

 Even now he is overwhelmed with astonishment at the 

 unexpected sight, and can only give to the angel's ques- 

 tion, " Who are these ? and whence came they ? " the 

 wondering answer of one in a dream, " Sir, thou 

 knowest." 



