CHAPTER XXVIII. On Revelation XXI. It has been already observed, that it is not the object of the Revelation to describe in detail the condition of the earth during the millennium. That, the Old Testament had already done; and accordingly the twentieth chapter, in which (if any where) a description of the millennial earth would have been found, rapidly passes over that period, and hastens on to the consummation, when all things are made new. But although the Revelation cannot be said to describe the millennial condition of the earth, yet there is no part of the Scripture that opens to us so full a view of what the millennium is; because there is none that similarly reveals the heavenly glories of the saints, and shows the instrumentality which is prepared above, in order to effect God's purposes of blessing in the earth. When we read of the risen "Church of the first-born," occupying that sphere of glory represented by the elders seated by the side of the Almighty throne-or as invested with the power of the cherubim- or as standing around the Lamb upon Zion—or as singing the song of Moses upon the sea of crystal, we see, in all these diversified presentations of their manifold glory, the symbols of a power whereon the earth will be made dependent for its blessing. But however necessary these high glories of the saints. may be to the government and blessing of the millennial earth (and they are all necessary-all links in the chain of the appointed order), yet in none of the previous visions do we find Heaven brought into such close, and, if I may use the word, systematic relationship to the earth, as in that which we are now about to consider. It is the vision of the heavenly city that shows us the glory of the saints brought into its closest adaptation to the need of a fallen earth. It is under this aspect that they are first called the Bride of the Lamb; and although the heavenly city does not descend into the millennial earth, yet it is the Bride of the Lamb throughout the millennium, and as such partakes in the interests and employments of her Lord-ministers to those to whom He ministers, succours those whom He succours, is arrayed in the excellency of His glory, and shares in the homage rendered to Him. A city is the emblem of associated and ordered life. It is the place where character is developed, and where habits of thought and action are displayed. If a metropolis, (as in this case it is,) it becomes, throughout its appointed sphere, the centre from which and through which all vivifying influence is diffused. The habits of the saints, their relations one to another and to God; the results of their being what they will be in understanding, affection, and feelings-all this must be developed somewhere, and it will be developed there; and it will be developed in such excellency, that this city will be the home of the affections of Christ. It will be His spouse-He will trust in her, joy in her, and find her one who responds to His affections, enters into His thoughts, and adorns Him by her excellencies even in the courts of His highest glory. She is, however, described in this chapter chiefly, I might perhaps say entirely, in relation to the earth; and therefore the description must be regarded as only partial. She is looked upon as seen from below, rather than as known within herself; and although the excellency of the symbols which denote the character of her glory in her displayed relation to the earth, teach us much of her dignity and beauty, yet we learn it as in the distance; we are instructed, as it were, without the walls. The vision supplies us with the aspect which she will bear to those without, rather than with the knowledge that will pertain to within. John saw externally and afar off. fore regard this vision as teaching us what she will be in the apprehensions of the millennial saints who dwell upon the earth, rather than as a full revelation of all the secrets of her excellent glory. those who dwell We must there Her chief characteristic is her heavenly origin. She is not of the earth. She is that city "whose maker and builder is God." "He carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God-her light like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal." She descended out of heaven from God, not indeed as yet to be on the earth, but to become over the earth, from the heavens above, the earth's new centre of light and influence in the stead of that city which had made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication. That city had been emphatically from beneath. She had been the great result of the wisdom of ages, stimulated and assisted by the skill and energy of Satan; and together with the beast had ruled the earth for a season. But now she who had been prepared by God - His gift to the earth-His gift also to His own beloved Son the Bride of the Lamb, was come to minister to the earth heavenly blessings, and to shine toward all nations in the true light of the holiness and glory of God. "Her light was like unto a stone most precious." I have before spoken of the symbolic meaning of precious stones. We have seen them once on the breast-plate of the high priest of Israel, the type and the pledge of the moral grace and outward glory which finally will attach to all the Israel of God. It is no unintelligible emblem to have one's name written on that whose lustre is as enduring as itself, and which shines most when brought into nearest connection with the light of God. But, howsoever blessed this typehowsoever clearly it indicates the final condition of the whole family of God, yet it fails in teaching us the full secret of our blessing. The high priest, as ministering before God, stood separate from, and contrasted with, the glory of Him before whom he served. There was nothing that spoke of union with God. But when we read in this book of the brightness of the jasper stone, first scen in the person of Him who sat upon the throne, and then read of the same bright lustre attaching to the heavenly city, it teaches us, not merely the nature of that brightness, but also the source from which it flows, and where it is preserved for us, and why it will be in us, even because we are "IN Him that is true, that is, the true God." "The Church of the first-born," when the time comes for the heavenly city to descend, will have been brought into full realized union with Him, and been made recipients of His fulness; and will, therefore, shine according to His excellency. He who is Light will be there; and there will be nothing in her to hinder, nothing to dim, the pure effulgence of His glory. Nothing can be more transparent than crystal-nothing more bright than the jasper nothing more resplendent when fully illumined by the light of God. Such will be the light of her glory then. “The nations," it is said, " shall walk by means of the light thereof." She will be the temple (vaoc) of the whole earth. But it was not glory merely that made Christ the light of this world when He was in it, in the midst of its darkness. We read indeed of light connected with glory, but we also read of "the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death — to guide our feet into the way of peace." Light would be a sorrow ful thing to such a world as this, unless it could come as a light of gentleness, and love, and peace, as well as of holiness and glory. And it will. "God is love." Love has been manifested in Jesus, as it yet again will be, and in others also made like unto Jesus in His glory. And, therefore, the hour of the manifestation of this glory will be no hour of destructive and consuming brightness; but it shall be as "the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." Such will be the effect of the dawning of the light of the holy city, the Bride of the Lamb, upon a stricken and terrified earth, to which, as brought at last under the applied power of redemption, she will minister together with Him the pure blessings of goodness. Nor will her ministry be that of love only - it will also be the ministry of grace. Her very name teaches this; for she is not called the Bride of Christ merely, but the Bride of the Lamb. Love was known in paradise, but redemption has brought in grace; it has caused grace to abound where sin abounded. Accordingly we read of the heavenly city having, not the throne of God merely, but "the throne of God and of the Lamb." And it is from this throne, thus established in the supremacy, not of power only, but of grace, that the river of life issues-on either side of which grew the tree of life, whose leaves, it is said, "were for the healing of the nations." Nothing can more plainly mark the relation of the heavenly city to another sphere external to itself, in which sorrow and sickness, as the consequences of sin, still linger. Being itself under the shelter of the power of God in redemption, and having itself tasted of the blessedness of grace (for they who inhabit that city will have been sinners, once dead in trespasses and sins), it will not be slow to apply the ready instrumentality so graciously provided to meet the need of those still dwelling in the unredeemed and sinful body below. |