xin. THE GATES OF PEARL. 



225 



There is, I cannot help thinking, something signifi- 

 cant in the very place where the vision of the New 

 Jerusalem was given to St. John. It was not in a 

 narrow, consecrated place, connected with the limita- 

 tions of thought and feeling, but on an island in the 

 ocean, surrounded by the mighty waters, emblem of 

 the Divine justice that is broad and deep as floods. 

 There is a similar significance in the place where 

 Christ gave His last command to the disciples. It 

 was a mountain in Galilee, the least Jewish part of 

 Palestine, far removed from the temple and the city 

 of Jerusalem, from all sacerdotalism and ritualism, from 

 all the restraints of human creeds and ordinances. 

 There above the low, petty world of human strifes 

 and questionings, with the largest view of God's world 

 around Him, and the widest horizon of sympathy and 

 hope ; on a mountain, such as that on which Satan 

 showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the 

 glory of them, and promised to give them to Him, if 

 He would fall down and worship him there He de- 

 clared the vast extent of His kingdom, and commanded 

 the disciples to teach all nations. 



The vision of the New Jerusalem was unlike anything 

 that had ever been seen on earth. It was a revelation 

 that was made to the Jews, but it did not originate among 

 them. The idea was not formed on earth, it was 

 wrought out in heaven. It far transcended human 

 conceptions and earthly instincts. We see all through 

 the history of the Jews that God's thoughts were high 

 above their thoughts as the heavens above the earth. 



