KINGDOM AND AGE TO COME.
“And in their days, even of those kings, the God of heaven shall set up A KINGDOM which shall never perish, and A DOMINION that shall not be left to another people. It shall grind to powder and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever.”—DANIEL.
THE NEW JERUSALEM EXPLAINED.
“I will write upon him that overcomes the name of New Jerusalem, the city of my God.”—Jesus.
Referring to Revelation 22: 2, 15, a correspondent inquires, “Now, provided the Sin-power be destroyed, and we have all the blessings described in the fourth verse of the chapter before, why do we need the Tree of Life; and why are dogs, sorcerers, &c., said to be without?”
The direct answer to this is, that we have no need; and that dogs, and sorcerers, do not then exist without. This answer, however, is on the hypothesis that “the Sin-power is destroyed,” and that “the blessings” indicated in Revelation 21: 4, are possessed by all the dwellers upon earth, when “the throne of God and of the Lamb” exists in the Age to Come.
But this hypothesis cannot be sustained. The Sin-power is not destroyed until a thousand years after the appearing of the Son of Man in power. It is bruised and chained at his appearing, but not destroyed; as is evident from the prediction that, “when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, the Gog and the Magog, to gather them together for war; the number being as the sand of the sea.”
“The blessings” referred to are postmillennial. It is true, however, that the saints who possess the kingdom will enjoy those blessings during the thousand years. But then Revelation 21: 4, is not the passage that predicts their consolation. The prophecy relating to them reads thus—“I beheld,” says John, “and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kingdoms, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands: and they cried with a loud voice saying, ‘The salvation (be ascribed) to him who sits upon the throne of our God, even to the Lamb!’ These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”—Revelation 7: 9-17. This multitude, whose representative number is 144,000, and their representative measure 12,000 furlongs square about, 12,000 furlongs high, and walled in by an altitude of 144 cubits, are the gold, and silver, and precious stones, tried in the fire, of whom Paul speaks in part in 1 Corinthians 3: 12, as “built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner”—Ephesians 2: 20—“a living stone, chosen of God, and precious” to them that believe—1 Peter 2: 4, 7. These are the Lord’s in that day when he makes up his jewels—Malachi 3: 17—the sapphires, agates, carbuncles, and pleasant stones—the children of Jerusalem in her exaltation—Isaiah 54: 11-13, who is the mother of them all—Galatians 4: 26.
These sons and daughters of faith and tribulation are those, who, in the days of their probation, love Jerusalem, and believe the “glorious things God has spoken” concerning her. Believing these promises, they become “the children of the promise who are counted for the seed,” who are to inherit the Gentiles. They therefore stand related to the metropolis, or mother city of their kingdom, as mother and offspring—all of whose children shall be taught of God, and great shall be their peace.
This great multitude has a twofold existence—first, as flesh and blood suffering tribulation; and secondly, as palm trees flourishing in possession of the kingdom of God. In the former state their fortunes, or rather misfortunes, are concurrent with those of Jerusalem as “a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit.” Hence they are described in the Book of Symbols as “the Holy City trodden under foot of the Gentiles forty-two months”—Revelation 11: 2. But, when Jerusalem becomes “free,” and she who now “drinks the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrings them out,” shall awake and put on her strength, and be endued with her beautiful garments, and the uncircumcised and the unclean come into her no more—Isaiah 51: 17-23; 52: 1—then will the great multitude John beheld awake also, and put on their strength, and beauty, and rejoice in the prosperity of the Holy City, for her glory will be also theirs. Jerusalem is then exalted, and become “the joy of the whole earth.” Well may the poet say on view of this, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy”—Psalm 137: 5.
“Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy,” compared with anything pertaining to her on former days, is a new Jerusalem—he ano Hierousalem, “the higher, or more exalted, Jerusalem;” and by virtue of her being the theatre of divine manifestations, and “the throne of the Lord,” she is styled, “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” to which even now all believers come by faith, and rejoice in hope of her glory, of which they are joint-heirs with her “Great King.” This being their relation to her, every one that inherits the glorious things spoken of her, is inscribed with her name; as saith the Lord Jesus in these words, “Upon him that overcomes I will write the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of the heaven from my God.” Each of this great multitude, then, is named after the Free Woman subsequently to his resurrection; for it is not till then that their acceptance as those who have by their faith overcome the world’s enticements, is declared. Now Paul teaches that this multitude of resurrected and glorified saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air—1 Thessalonians 4: 17; 2 Thessalonians 1: 8. John saw them there in vision, and represents them as those who had gained a victory, standing on a sea of crystal, mingled with fire, and rejoicing—Revelation 15: 2. But these citizens of the New Jerusalem do not always remain “in the air;” for in another vision John saw them as “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of the heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” But before he saw this, an angel said to him, “Come hither, I will show thee the Bride, the Lamb’s wife.” So “he showed me,” says John, “that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of the heaven from God.” It is clear from this, that the New Jerusalem John saw was not a city of architecture, but a polity made up of glorified saints. The phrase “the Bride, the Lamb’s wife,” applied to the descending city, proves this. In the nineteenth chapter and eighth verse, she is represented as being “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white;” which white raiment is said to be representative of “the righteousness of the saints;” which is equivalent to saying that the Bride is the aggregate of the saints. They are collectively the Lamb’s wife, according to the teaching of Paul, who says that they are “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones;” which was Eve’s relation to the first man.
This city, or body corporate, of Jehovah’s glorified sons and daughters, is representatively exhibited and described in Revelation 21: 11, to 22: 5. It is set forth as a city having a great and high wall of Jasper, in which are twelve gates of as many pearls, with wall-foundations of choice stones, each one of the twelve being decorated with all manner of precious stones. These rare and brilliant insets, which highly adorn the State, are worked into pure crystal-like gold, by which the city-multitude of its street, or broadway—hee plateia tees poleoos, is represented. In the midst of this polity is the throne of God and of the lamb, from which issues a life-inspiring stream that flows along the plateia, refreshing and invigorating all the members of the State. There also stands “the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God,” nourished by the river which streams amid its roots; “bearing twelve fruits, through one month yielding its separate fruit, and its leaves for the healing of the nations.”
THE NEW JERUSALEM WALL.
Such is the municipality of the Kingdom represented by most expressive symbols, which I shall now briefly explain. First, then, of the “great and high wall of Jasper.” The wall is representative of a federal person; and the material, of that person’s preciousness. That “wall” is used of person in Scripture is evident from these texts—“What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver. I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.” This is a Bride that has found favour; and she is styled a wall. The Lord said to Jeremiah, “I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail.” Speaking of Jerusalem delivered from her desolators, Jehovah says, “I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.” “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.” The Bride, then, is a wall, and the Lord is a wall to her likewise; for being a wall of fire to the city standing on Mount Zion, he is also a wall to that glorious city’s corporation. The Lord as the wall of the Kingdom’s municipality encloses all its members, who, having been “baptised into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” are “in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus”—walled or enclosed in him, which is the idea represented by the symbol.
The enclosure of the New Jerusalem community—the wall; and their “light”—the glory of God—are both represented by transparent jasper stone. “I will be the glory in the midst of her, saith the Lord;” that is, “I will be a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal unto her.” And this interpretation of the jasper-light of the commonwealth, is sustained by the words of the angel, who says, “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” This is taught without symbol in the prophets. “The man whose name is the Branch,” says Zechariah, “shall bear the glory, and sit and rule upon his throne.”—“Then,” says Isaiah, “the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” These “ancients” are “the City or State, that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God,” and whose Prince is Christ the Lord, its everlasting light and glory.
The relationship of the Lamb and the Bride in regard to the City Wall, will exemplify the idea of “no temple being there.” The wall of a house or temple is the building itself; for no wall, no building. Believers in Christ in the present evil world are styled in scripture, “the house of God,” and “the temple of God.” “Know ye not,” says Paul to the Corinthians in Christ, “that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” “Ye are God’s building;” but without the Lamb, that is, not being built into him, they were neither house, temple, nor builded wall. Individually, they were separate and distinct elements, like unconnected stones accumulated for building purposes. While thus, they were neither wall nor temple. But when cut and polished, and built in by the Spirit, through Paul as “a wise masterbuilder;” that is, “constituted the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,” who became to them “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,” they became “One Body,” having him for their head; and therefore, one wall, one temple, and one building with, and inseparable from, him. This being so, such a society needs no temple, being its own temple. This is not to say, that there is no temple in Jerusalem at the time. John’s instructor is not speaking of things unsymbolical pertaining to men in mortal flesh; but to Saints immortalised. Ezekiel treats of the unfigurative, which become symbols in the construction of the Apocalypse. The temple he treats of is the house of prayer for Israel and the nations; but the temple constituted of the Lamb and his Bride, is for them who are “pillars in it, and shall no more go out.”
THE PEARL-GATES.
The Twelve Gates of pearls in the wall represent the relationship subsisting between the New Jerusalem Municipality and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The names inscribed on the gates show that they are representatives of the tribes; and that, consequently, the members of the New Jerusalem community became such by adoption into the Commonwealth of Israel, on an angel-principle, and so “entered in through the gates into the city.” The twelve angels stationed at the gates represent twelve messengers, by whose message, believed and obeyed, the gold and precious stones of the polity came to “enter in through the gates.” The names of these angels or messengers are inscribed upon the twelve foundations of the wall, being “the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” These are the angels of the pearly gates of this glorious city, sent by the jasper-light of it to turn men from darkness to light, and to invite them to God’s kingdom of glory. This they did by preaching the gospel of the kingdom for “the obedience of faith;” by which obedience a people were separated from “all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues;” and adopted as citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel, in the hope of that remarkable and favoured nation. They thus became a part of Israel, and therefore styled by Paul “the Israel of God;” which, in its glorified state, with Israel’s God and King in the midst of them, was displayed in vision descending from the air to Mount Zion, before the mind of the apostle John.
The organization of the Israel of God has relation, therefore, to the foundation of the Hebrew Commonwealth in the twelve sons of Israel, and their own engraftment into Israel’s Olive, through the ministration of the twelve apostles, who issued from the tribes. Hence, in other parts of the apocalypse, they are represented by twenty-four elders wearing crowns of gold, who, with the four living creatures full of eyes, explain their own representation in the songs ascribed to them. When exhibited as a city, the twenty-four are divided into twelves, whose names are inscribed on the gates and foundations of the wall; and the eyes of the living creatures become the garnishing precious stones of each apostle-foundation. They are “the servants of God sealed in their foreheads”—the “144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel,” become “Israelites indeed” by that which is sealed upon them: for in relation to the glorified inheritors of Israel’s kingdom, “the flesh profiteth nothing.”
THE FOUNDATION-STONES.
Each foundation-stone of the city wall is a great precious stone, “a living stone”—and represents an apostle. Each polished gem would be beautiful alone; but how much more beautiful when decorated by all manner of precious stones beside! The meaning of this symbol is expressed in Paul’s words to those whom he had “sealed on their foreheads,” and brought into fellow-citizenship with the Saints of Israel. “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? Ye are our glory and joy.” They were not “wood, hay, and stubble,” but gold, and silver, and precious stones. There is no use for destructible materials, such as wood, hay, and stubble, in God’s municipality; it is only those who stand the fire can be admitted there. Such were many of the apostles’ converts to the faith. They will rejoice together in the presence of the Lord; and those who have been brought to the obedience of the faith by an apostle, will be to him the garnishment of precious stones in the holy city.
The elements of the wall and the precious stones, are built upon the foundation stones. The idea incorporated into this symbol is found in the words—“Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit;” which in the New Jerusalem association, issues from his throne, and flows through every member of it, as “ a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.”
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE CITY.
The idea of “a great multitude which no man can number” constituting the New Jerusalem society, is represented by the symbolical magnitude of the city. Twelve is the radical number, and multiplies by twelve. Twelve thousand were representatively sealed, and identified as a tribe of the Israel of God. Twelve times twelve thousand give the 144,000 on Mount Zion with the Lamb. Each 12,000 occupies a definite space, which is 4000 furlongs square; and for all the thousands representatively stated as 12,000 furlongs square for the whole city, 48,000 furlongs the four square; giving 144,000 furlongs for its sectional contents. The symbolical height of the city is equal to its length and breadth. The height of the wall is twelve times twelve cubits; sufficiently high to indicate the impossibility of “any thing entering into it to defile it,” or that is “not written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Here is multitude innumerable symbolically represented, by 1500 miles length and breadth, and altitude besides; showing, doubtless, that this glorious polity is the medium of connection between the nations of the earth and heaven.
NEW JERUSALEM THE MILLENNIAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.
Such a community as this can need no lamp, or sunlight, to enlighten it; for “there shall be no night there.” Every individual of it will “shine as the brightness of the firmament; and those of it who have turned many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” Being righteous, they shine as the sun; for “the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever.”
This saying proves that the New Jerusalem is a community of kings—“they shall reign for ever and ever”—eis tous aionas ton aionon, to the ages of the ages. Over whom shall they reign, and where? “He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron:”—“He shall sit with me on my throne, even as I overcome and sit with my Father in his throne.” In view of these promises the heirs of the kingdom sing in their new song, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” And when the time comes for this to be fulfilled, John sees “thrones,” and he says, “They sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them—and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” “And the nations of them that are saved (survive the judgment of the saints) shall walk in the light of it (the New Jerusalem government), and the kings of the earth (the victorious saints) bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it.”
“And judgment was given unto them;” that is, says Daniel, “to the saints.” This is their honour. “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the nations, and punishments upon the people: to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron: to execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints”—Psalm 149. But the sword only prepares the way for the world’s regeneration. It hews down embattled hindrances to the improvement of mankind; but it adds nothing to the spirituality and intelligence of them that escape. The mission of Christ and his brethren, the saints, is to regenerate the world, as well as to “break in pieces the oppressor;”—to heal the nations of all their maladies of soul, spirit, and estate.
The agency by which this great work is to be accomplished is the Spirit of God operating through Christ, the Apostles, and the rest of the Saints—the New Jerusalem association of God’s kings and priests. This idea is represented by the pure river of living water, the Tree of Life, the twelve fruits, through one month yielding its separate fruit; and the Leaves of the Tree for the healing of the nations. That “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, issuing from the throne of God and the Lamb,” is the symbol of the Holy Spirit may be perceived from these words: —“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.” “If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of him shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him should receive.”
THE TREE OF THE KINGDOM.
What the Tree of Life represents may be learned from the following texts. “Wisdom is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her.” “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, which spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” “What is the vine tree more than any tree?” This text from Ezekiel shows that in the scripture style, the vine is regarded as a tree. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. I am the Vine,” continued Jesus to his apostles, “ye are the Branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for severed from me ye can do nothing.”
“In the Word was life; and the life was the light of men.” That Word was made flesh, and named Jesus, who proclaimed himself the resurrection and the life. Hence, as the true vine, he is the Tree of Life, watered by the Spirit, which he received without measure. He is “a tree of life to them who lay hold upon him;” for he is “the power and wisdom of God unto them which are called.” In the book of symbols, Christ on the throne of his kingdom, and encompassed by the 144,000, is represented as “the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God.” “I am,” said Jesus, “the bread of life which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. If any man eat of this bread he shall live—eis ton aiona, in the age.” Hence, one of the inducements set before the faithful to overcome, is, in the words of Jesus, “I will give him to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God;” and “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
To eat of this tree is to become one of the leaves of it; and to partake, consequently, of that nourishment which rises from the root through the stem and branches thereof. This life-sustaining and invigorating principle, is that “pure water of life” which issues forth from the throne, and maintains the tree in everlasting freshness and beauty. It is the Tree of the Kingdom to which Jesus referred when he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.” The birds of the air are the chiefs of the nations, which saved-nations seek its fruit from one new moon to another ministered to them by its healing leaves.
THE HEALING-LEAVES.
The Leaves of the Tree for the healing of the nations. That is, the water of life is health-imparting to the saved-nations through the Leaves of the Tree of Life. The apostles being the branches of the true vine-tree, those who are ingrafted into that vine by the obedience of faith through their testimony, are the leaves, or breathing organs, of the tree. The Spirit that issues from the throne of God and the Lamb will breathe upon the conquered nations through the Saints, who then “possess the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven.” He breathed upon the 3000 Pentecostians through the Apostles; and the result was, their acceptance of Jesus as King of the Jews, raised up from the dead to sit on David’s throne; and obedience to the kingdom’s gospel in his name. “He breathes where he pleases.” He breathed in Jerusalem of old; he will breathe thence anew; not upon a few thousand Jews only, and through twelve men of Israel; but through “a great multitude which no man can number,” upon all the millennial nations of the earth; so that as a consequence, “the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea.” Then “shall the Gentiles come unto Him from the ends of the earth, and shall say, ‘Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.’”
That “a leaf,” or leaves, when used metaphorically in Scripture signifies a person, will appear from the following texts. Job, in his reasoning with God concerning his hapless condition, says, “Wherefore holdest thou me for thine enemy? Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro?” That is, “I am a leaf, as it were, driven to and fro, wilt thou break me?” as it were, that is, metaphorically. Isaiah addressing the transgressors in Israel, who practised idolatrous rites in gardens and under oak trees there, says to them collectively, “Ye shall be ashamed of the oaks ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.” In this, apostate Israel in church and state is likened to a withered oak, and a parched-up garden, the very opposite similitude to that in the apocalypse, where the government of their nation is likened to a tree of life; that is, to one whose leaf shall not fade; and to a well-watered garden, “the Paradise of God.” The dried leaves of Israel’s withered oak have done nothing for the nations, which are unhealed to this day; and will so remain for ever, unless their olive tree do “blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” But, let the reader mark the figure, how that trees are used in Scripture sometimes as representative of polities, good or bad according to the nature and condition of the trees.
There is a notable instance of this in Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar in a dream that he had, describes a tree he saw, saying, “I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and the altitude thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and on it meat for all; the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.” This tree was representative of “the kingdom of men,” on whose Chaldean throne Nebuchadnezzar reigned as king. Hence, Daniel said, in showing the significancy of the tree, “It is thou (or thy kingdom), O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.” The stump of the tree when felled, banded with brass and iron, was the kingdom of Babylon during the seven years of its king’s dethronement, made sure to him on the recovery of his reason. The fair leaves of this tree which were shaken off, were the nobles and dignitaries of the kingdom detached from all connexion with Nebuchadnezzar during the days of his calamity.
The passage already quoted from Jeremiah shows that a person is likened to a tree as well as a kingdom; and that his excellency is manifested in the condition of its leaf, and fruit-bearing quality. When a tree represents a body corporate, its foliage is generally expressed by the plural “leaves,” but when only one person is meant, the singular is used, as “leaf.” Thus, it is written in David, speaking of the man who is blessed, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not fade: and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” This is predicable of the blessed men when he is a leaf among the leaves of the tree of life—whatsoever he doeth then shall prosper. By synecdoche, a leaf for a tree represents a man; as an eye in the apocalyptic living creatures symbolises an individual; the rule being, a part for the whole for the decorum of the symbol. A multitude of eyes, and a multitude of leaves, are a multitude of people, constituting a community, incorporated into a divine polity in that represented by the tree-stock, and the cherubic creatures—fire, light, and spirit, the symbols of the God-head in manifestation through body, styled “God manifest in the flesh.”
I trust that the reader will now be able to answer the question scripturally and rationally, “What is represented by the apocalyptic city of gold and precious stones? And what by the throne, the river, and the tree of life?” They are all things representative of Christ and his breastplate-Saints * in their governmental relations to the millennial nations. There is one point, however, I have only hinted at in my exposition, which I will briefly notice here. The common version reads, “the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.” The words in bold type were inserted by the translators to make out what they conceived to be the sense. Their rendering, however, is not satisfactory. The words are, a tree of life, producing twelve fruits, through one month yielding its separate fruit. In this rendering no supplemental words are introduced. But what is the meaning of it? I believe that it is symbolical of something already declared by the prophets; for the whole book of the apocalypse is a symbolical representation of “the mystery of God as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” In these writings he has promised blessedness and saving health to all nations; and we read of them saying in their convalescence, “Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways.” Who will teach them? He who is the tree of life in the Paradise, or Garden of God. He will then produce, or reveal knowledge, pertaining to “his ways,” which knowledge is contained in “the Law” and in “the Word,” which are to go forth from Zion and Jerusalem. The law and the word of God will issue from his throne through his king, through stated times, or “from one new moon to another.” The “twelve fruits of the tree of life,” are the knowledge of good tending to life, being made known in all the year. Fruit is anything produced. It is not produced to all the world at once; that is, in a single month: but at every new moon of the year’s twelve shall strangers present themselves in Jerusalem for instruction, “and from one Sabbath to another.” The tree produces the knowledge, the leaves yield it to the nations, according to the administrative institutions of the new constitution and order of things; which I understand to be represented in the text before us.
It will hardly be necessary, I think, after this exposition, to say much about the “dogs and sorcerers without”—the Gentiles and teachers which they have heaped up to themselves after their own lusts. It must be obvious to every one that there can be none such within: but that the words are strictly true in the very nature of things, that “there can in no wise enter into it anything that defileth; but only those written in the book of the Lamb’s life.” The Lamb’s life-community is the world’s unchangeable government for a thousand years. Flesh and blood cannot be a constituent of that government. It is “without;” and until that government is triumphantly established, it is in open rebellion, cursing, and wailing, and gnashing its teeth. But of this hereafter at a more convenient opportunity.
EDITOR.
* Aaron under his foursquare breastplate of judgment, the Urim and Thummim, the ephod, gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen in the most holy place, was a type of the New Jerusalem; that is, of Christ and his Saints in glory. Compare Aaron’s foursquare with the foursquare of the Apocalypse, Exodus 28. Concerning Christ as the precious seven-eyed stone “like a jasper and sardius to look upon,” Jehovah says, “I will engrave the graving thereof,” which graving is represented in the workmanship and names engraved on the gates and foundations of the city.
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