The dimensions of the city as measured by the angel are next given as twelve thousand furlongs, or one thousand five hundred miles. By the statement that the length, the breadth and the height are equal, some have supposed that the city was one thousand five hundred miles high. To quote the words of a certain commentator: "The language, however, will bear another meaning, which is far more natural. It is not that the length and breadth and height were severally equal to each other, but equal with themselves; that is the length was everywhere the same, the breadth everywhere the same, and the height the same. It was perfect and symmetrical in all its proportions. This is confirmed by the fact distinctly stated, that the wall was one hundred and forty and four cubits high, or two hundred and sixteen feet, a proper height for a wall; while it is said only that 'the length is as large as the breadth.'" This writer reckoned but eighteen inches for a cubit, whereas some figure twenty-two. A city one thousand and five hundred miles high with a wall only two hundred and sixteen or two hundred and sixty four feet high, would be altogether out of proportion.
The wondrous dimensions of this city set forth the fact that our future home far exceeds in grandeur and extent everything that is looked upon as glorious upon earth. Who ever heard of a city one thousand and five hundred miles square? We have had empires so large, but no such cities. In this representation the city does not encompass the entire earth as she in one sense really does, because it would be impossible thus to represent her and at the same time she be represented as a city within the earth, into which the nations bring their "glory and honor." The ancient city of Babylon with its beautiful hanging-gardens, the very triumph of human skill, and the city itself lying in a foursquare, being fifteen miles on each side, was unsurpassed in human loveliness. But the city of God is represented as fifteen hundred miles square, which dimensions are out of all proportion with anything existing on earth; hence its beauty and magnificence must be ascribed to God only.
"And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold like unto clear glass." The jasper is the same crystal gem before mentioned. What a wondrous wall it must have been! It was not made of such common material as granite, freestone, or marble, which can make the most imposing structures that human pride can rear, and which are fit for the residence of lofty kings; but it was of jasper, clear as crystal. Think of the wall of this holy city being nearly three hundred feet high and stretching around the city six thousand miles, all built of the purest diamond! No stretch of the human imagination can properly compass such a vision. In rearing earthly structures men seek such material as combine durability, cheapness, beauty, and ease of being wrought. Look at this wall! For durability, it has the most indestructible material that can be found on earth. For beauty, the language of man can not even convey a meagre description of its amazing loveliness. For cheapness—God's riches were inexhaustible, hence it was not necessary to take this into consideration. For ease of being wrought—think of the vast amount of labor it requires to cut and shape even one large diamond, it being said to require in some cases years of incessant toil; yet God could afford to build the wall of this city of such material. Oh, wonders of God's handiwork! How inexpressibly glorious! This, my dear reader, symbolizes the priceless worth of our eternal home, secured through the atonement. Study the plan of redemption. There is nothing equal to it in the universe. "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Men become greatly agitated over the announcement of the discovery of gold in the Klondyke, in the Australian continent, in California, and with feverish excitement they abandon their homes and rush headlong to the reputed El Dorado, fearing neither famine, storms, deserts, nor the icy northern blasts. But all the gold ever mined from the bowels of the earth is insignificant and forms no comparison with the representation of this city. Its streets and mansions were built, not of common cement, lumber, nor even granite and marble, but of pure gold.
The twelve courses of stone in the foundation of the wall have already been mentioned. It is here particularly described. One might suppose that, according to human custom, rougher material would be selected for the foundation. Not so, however. The most brilliant and costly gems were chosen to lay these courses. Nothing cheap nor common had anything to do in the construction of this marvelous city. It was altogether beyond the reach of men to imitate: it was God's own handiwork; and we can not but admire its wondrous beauty. It is unnecessary to give a minute description of the gems of which these foundation-courses were composed. They were the most beautiful and costly of which men possess any knowledge. In appearance they represent various colors of the most delicate shades. Royal persons wear even the smallest of these gems upon their persons and imagine themselves richly adorned; but in this city of God they appear in such abundance that they are even selected to form the basis, or foundation, of the wall. "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl." We have rich necklaces of pearl; but where is the individual that was ever blessed with such a profusion of wealth that he could ornament the gates of a city with pearls? The gates of the New Jerusalem, however, were not merely ornamented or studded with pearls—that were a very small thing for her—but each gate was of one solid pearl. To conceive the immensity of this representation we must consider the size of the gates required to accommodate the multitudes constantly entering and departing from a city. To be in proportion to the wall they would have to be of immense size, and also of prodigious strength in order to resist the assaults of enemies, as they would be the first places attacked. The gate of the temple called Beautiful, mentioned in the Book of Acts, which was in the wall surrounding the temple, is said to have been seventy-five feet high and sixty in width, built of Corinthian brass. Yet immense as they were, those in the New Jerusalem were each of one solid pearl. Oh, beautiful city of God, the home of the saints!
The most prominent object within the walls of the ancient Jerusalem was the magnificent temple on Mount Zion. It was the chief ornament and glory of the city. In the New Jerusalem, however, no temple is seen. Alas! is not this a great defect? What is Jerusalem without a temple where the tribes may go up and worship before the Lord? Oh, they need no temple in this glorious city of God; for there is one there greater than the temple: "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." This doubtless sets forth the fact that the worship of God is pure and spiritual and of free access to all. Under the old dispensation the high priest alone, and he but once a year, was permitted to enter the sacred precincts of the Deity as limited to the inner sanctuary of the temple. Now God's people need no mediating priest to offer up a special sacrifice that the will of God might be known; but all are kings and priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5); yea, as saith the prophet, "they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." Jer. 31:34. No temple is needed that the Shekinah of the divine presence may take up its abode between the cherubim in the most holy place, but "the glory of the Lord" fills the entire city. It can not be confined to a given locality. "The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it," and they constitute the glory of the New Jerusalem as did the temple on Mount Zion that of the old.
"The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." Can any one conceive the grandeur and the sublimity of the scene when a light that eclipses the sun and the moon is reflected from streets and mansions of gold, or comes streaming through a wall composed of the most brilliant gems of different hues, with gates of solid pearl? No wonder, then, that the poet has denominated it "the beautiful light of God"! The gates are open continuously, for they are not closed by day, and "there shall be no night there." But "there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of Life." This, my dear reader, is the reward of the New Testament church, "the church of God."