THE GATES OF PEARL. 



231 



will enhance the value of the Saviour's love and serve 

 to deepen their own peace, will be kept before their 

 minds by everlasting memorials. 



2. And this brings me to the second point of con- 

 sideration the material of which the gates were com- 

 posed. Every several gate was of one pearl. What 

 a beautiful symbol this is ! Death is the gate by 

 which every one must enter the heavenly city. And 

 what a dark and gloomy appearance does it present to 

 us on this earthly side ! The exit from this mortal life 

 usually appears to us as an iron gate closing a vista 

 of funereal cypresses. The way to it is strewn with 

 faded flowers and withered leaves. It is corroded 

 with rust ; it creaks miserably on its hinges ; it is 

 carved with the skull and the cross-bones emblems of 

 our sad mortality. About it grows the deadly night- 

 shade and the gloomy ivy. On the top is the urn of 

 ashes draped with the weeper's towel ; and on the sides 

 are the upturned torches whose flame has been ex- 

 tinguished. A chill that penetrates to the soul pervades 

 all the place ; and the darkness that broods there per- 

 petually has no ray of light to cheer it. Such is the 

 dread picture which the end of this life presents to our 

 imaginations. Sin has done everything possible to make 

 the gate unsightly to poor creatures of sense. But how 

 different is the entrance into the heavenly life ! We 

 pass through the iron gate of death, and looking back 

 from the other side, from the golden street of the 

 celestial city, we see it transformed into a gate of pearl. 

 All its gloom has disappeared ; all its relics of mortality 



