[Bates’ Pamphlet #1] The Opening Heavens

SANCTUARY

Well, says one, are you going to call this City the Sanctuary too? If you will allow the Bible testimony you will have to believe it is, or search more diligently for it in this planet than any one else ever has that I have heard of. But it has been proved by most able men, and learned men, that it is the Earth, or the Land of Canaan. Well, let us look at it again. But allow me first to recommend to your particular notice, O. R. L. Crosier’s article in the Day Star Extra, for the 7th of February, 1846, from the 37th to the 44th page. Read it again. In my humble opinion it is superior to any thing of the kind extant. BP1 25.2

“Sanctuary was the first name the Lord gave the Tabernacle, which name covers not only the Tabernacle with--------------------we cannot understand him unless we spiritualize his meaning. Now this will never be the case with immortal Saints, for they will never flee from this glorious City, for it is named “a place of refuge and a covert from the storm, and from the rain.” It will ever be their delight when their Captain shall recognize his own new name in their foreheads. the two apartments, but also the court with all its hangings, and all the vessels of the ministry.” Exodus 25:8, 9, and 38, 21; Numbers 1:53. This, then, was a dwelling place, and a true pattern of the heavenly, embracing within its “jasper” walls “the Paradise of God,” with the “pure river of the water of life,” and the “tree of life,” and the “Golden City in the midst,” all to come down from heaven and be located in old Jerusalem. Za.14th chapter. That’s too absurd to believe, says one. Is it any more so, than to believe the Apostle John’s testimony? Does he not show us that the tree of life is inside of the gates, in 22:14. Read also the two first verses. Do not the waters issue out from the throne? and is not the tree of life on either side of it? and is not the promise - to him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God? Well, continues the objector, I don’t know but that I could have believed your Scripture testimony concerning the city, but I can’t believe that God has such a place in the third heavens, and that it will descend to this earth with a river of water in, or on it. How can you believe then, what you are experiencing every day of your life, on the planet in which we live? While she is flying in her orbit around the Sun at the rate of fifty-eight thousand miles per hour, she is at the same time whirling over like a ball from East to West, at the rate of six hundred miles per hour, in her diurnal or daily motion, bottom upwards, as it would appear, every twenty-four hours, and yet, by an unseen power, (readily accounted for by Astronomers,) not only the rivers and the lakes, but the mighty ocean, remains unmoved. BP1 25.3

As we have before quoted, Moses says that a river went out of Eden to water the Garden, and became into four heads. Genesis 2:10, 14. Now let us turn to Ezekiel’s prophecy for a corresponding view, as “in the mouth of two or three witnesses, shall every word be established.” In chapter 43, 1st and 7th verses, he testifies that this accords with the vision he had by the river Chebar twenty years before, (previously quoted.) Here he sees the Glory of God on the east side of the Sanctuary, (where Moses said the flaming sword and Cherubims were,) and his “voice like the noise of many waters saying to him that the house of Israel shall no more defile God’s name.” Afterwards, in 47th chapter, 1st and 5th verse: “He brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward - (observe how particular to mention the “east side”) - for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house.” His guide then measured the waters one thousand cubits (more than one-fourth of a mile) “the waters were to the ankles,” but when he had measured four thousand cubits, they had become waters to swim in, that could not be passed over.” In 12th verse he describes the tree of life yielding its monthly fruit, for meat, and its unfading leaves for medicine.” Why all this? “Because the waters issued out of the Sanctuary.” Now read again in Revelation 22:1, 2; does not John tell the same story: the waters issuing from out the throne, the tree of life, the monthly fruit, the leaves for healing, the nations. Is not this after the city comes down? In 48th chapter, 8th verse: “And the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.” Once more the measuring rod is run over it, showing the four sides just like the old pattern in the wilderness, and then says the Sanctuary shall be in the midst thereof. From 30th to 35th verse, he describes the wall and the gates as John does in Revelation 21:13, and closes up his prophecy in these words. “And the name of the city from that day shall be, the Lord is there.” Now let the old prophet Isaiah testify to what he saw: “Look upon Zion the City of our solemnities, thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a Tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ships pass thereby.” 33:20,21. BP1 26.1

The Psalmist says, “there is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her” - 46:4, 5. Jeremiah says, “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.” Jeremiah 17:12. The Psalmist replies, “For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.” 102:19. (If he had said sanctuary instead of earth, we should not have been easily moved from our former exposition.) “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven.” 11:4. Paul says to the Hebrews, “We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty, in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Hebrews 8:1, 2. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” Romans 1:20. Paul tells the Hebrews how they may understand these invisible things, which he says are clearly seen. See viii.c.,5 v. “Shadow of heavenly things.” For see, (saith he) that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” Now then, whenever we want to understand about the heavenly sanctuary, we must turn to Moses’s description of the sanctuary in the wilderness, which he made after the pattern God gave him; which Paul says were shadows of heavenly things. How will a man dare (in the face of all this inspired testimony) to stand here on God’s earth, and assert that the heavenly sanctuary with all that pertains to it is a F I G U R E, and spiritualize it away. It would be ten thousand times easier for him to spiritualize the old Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple, seeing the one that is to come as far exceeds the temple of Solomon or Nehemiah, (although, it is allowed, that nothing on earth ever exceeded them) as the most splendid palace of the king does the sentry box of his guard. Much safer would it be for him to teach that the rocks had never been rent, or as he passed the streets in the afternoon and saw the shadow of the buildings, should insist upon it that the shadows were real, but the buildings, which cast the shadows, were spiritual. Such doctrine should be ranked with Mohammedanism and Jesuitism, save their demoniac spirit; it comes from the “bottomless pit and will go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth will wonder.” Revelation 17:8. But I wish to present further evidence of the real (not spiritual) coming of this heavenly sanctuary. Ezekiel says in his 37th chapter, where God has promised his spirit and life to the whole house of Israel, “Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore; my tabernacle also shall be with them: aye, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.” 26-28 v. Now here is God’s sacred promise that his sanctuary shall be in the midst of his people; and I have already quoted his 48th chap.10 v. where he says when the angel had “measured the land twenty-five thousand reeds in length and ten thousand in breadth,” said, and the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.” Now will it be insisted upon that the land, or his people, is the sanctuary; rather let us submit to the Scripture testimony. On the last night of our Saviour’s ministry here on earth, in company with his disciples, when everything else had failed to arouse them, he to quicken their drooping spirits says, “Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1, 3. I think I have now proved by unquestionable authority, that this heavenly sanctuary is the very place with mansions which he has been preparing, and according to his promise is now coming to receive his saints. But may there not after all be a failure here. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.” Having such testimony as this, we rejoice in “hope of the glory that is to be revealed.” BP1 27.1

“Unto two thousand three hundred days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Daniel 8:14. BP1 29.1

This, then, I understand, is the selfsame “heavenly Sanctuary, the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of God.” Well, says the reader, this cannot be; how can Paradise, which Paul said was in the “third heavens,” and where you say Jesus our High Priest is, be defiled? Where was the first sin that ever cursed this world committed? O, say you, that was six thousand years ago. Admit that it was, has God ever pardoned that sin? Turn to Genesis 3:17, 19. The ground is still cursed, and man gets his living by the sweat of his brow. Why? Because the extent of this first sin could never be known, until God had put the last seal upon his saints, “and the dead be judged.” But say you, the curse was upon the earth and its inhabitants. Yes; but was not Paradise polluted by this sin? But how can it be that anything in heaven is polluted, or unclean? Have I not proved by the astronomer’s conclusive arguments, that this earthly ball which we inhabit is continually flying through the regions of unlimited space, in the same direction with all other planets, seen or known in the solar system? Think you that this little speck of earth is the only thing that is defiled, among the millions and myriads of worlds which stud the diadem of space? We are told that the “stars are not pure in his sight.” “Yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.” Job 15:15; 25:5. Was not the sanctuary on earth which the high priest cleansed the tenth day of the seventh month every year, a pattern of the true? Does not Paul tell us that Jesus our high priest has entered into the true sanctuary, “into heaven itself. See Hebrews 9:12, 24; and 8:1, 2. Then is not our high priest in the proper place to “cleanse the sanctuary?” I cannot for the life of me see, how the pattern or type can be made to appear in any other way. How then can the earth (as one in the voice of truth, and many other writers say) be the sanctuary; while spiritualizers are saying it is the saints. O Lord give us the truth! BP1 29.2

The strongest proof ever been adduced to prove that the earth or Canaan was the sanctuary, is found in Exodus 15:17. Now what place is this which the Lord has made to dwell in? The answer is, “in the sanctuary O Lord, which thy hands have established.” Paul says this sanctuary is in the heavens which the Lord pitched and not man. Hebrews 8:1, 2. The only other passage for proof of the land is Psalm 78:54, both of which go to strengthen the testimony before adduced. “And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain which his right hand had purchased.” Does he in either text say that the mountain is the sanctuary? If I can understand him, he says that the mountain is the border of his sanctuary; just as Ezekiel has shown where his guide measured the land, and then said that the sanctuary of the Lord should be in the midst of it. Now the word sanctuary is mentioned more than seventy times in the bible, and the whole of them, with but a few exceptions, represent it a dwelling place, a building. The Psalmist says, that the “Lord looked down from his sanctuary from heaven to the earth.” Not to his sanctuary. But let us see what Daniel and the angel Gabriel called a sanctuary. Daniel 10-12. Is it not plain here that Popery took away the daily (i.e. destroyed Paganism) by arms or armies that stood on his (Popery’s part, or side) - 11:31. The taking away his sanctuary or polluting it is the same; for it would be absurd to say that the land was taken away, (11 v.) or that by this transaction the land was now polluted - 11:31. Now read 9:17, 19. Is not Daniel praying for the restoration of old Jerusalem, the city and sanctuary (the temple where God’s people worshipped) which had been desolated, burnt up, by the king of Babylon’s army, about seventy years before? (see Jeremiah 52:12, 14) and remained a burnt district until the commandment by Cyrus to Ezra, and afterwards to Nehemiah, to build the temple and city. Now in answer to this prayer, God immediately dispatched the angel Gabriel from the court of heaven, to give Daniel “skill and understanding” - 22nd v. In the 26th verse he informs him that Messiah shall be cut off, (crucify the Saviour) and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. How was this accomplished? Josephus who was an eye witness and historian, informs us that Titus the son of Vespasian, the Emperor of Rome, about A. D. 70, (five hundred and sixty years after the temple and city had been rebuilt by Nehemiah) came with his mighty Roman army and took Jerusalem, and burned up the city and temple (the sanctuary) and it was soon after “ploughed as a field,” (Micah 3:12) “and not one stone left upon another.” This, then, was the very circumstance, Prince, and people, alluded to by the angel Gabriel. I believe no one undertakes to dispute this point. BP1 30.1

Now we learn from this, that the angel Gabriel’s instructions from heaven in answer to Daniel’s prayer was, that it was the Temple in the city of old Jerusalem, which is the pattern or figure, or as Paul says “answereth to the new, which is above, which is the mother of us all.” Can anything be more plain and explicit than that this is the sanctuary to be cleansed, “unto two thousand three hundred days.” BP1 31.1

In the 11th verse he says, “the daily was taken away, (that is, Paganism) and the place of his sanctuary cast down.” How plain it is that this wicked sanctuary (where idols and devils were worshipped) was a building, cast down. How could they cast down the earth to the earth? (12th v.) and it (this same Popery) cast down the truth to the ground, so the ground was not destroyed; clear proof it was not the sanctuary. Well, but we don’t believe that God will ever cleanse the wicked sanctuary of Paganism. BP1 31.2

The sanctuary must be cleansed, (made holy) so must the saints; for St. John says, “nothing unclean or unholy shall enter there.” Then before the saints can enter the sanctuary it will be cleansed, not by fire, but by blood, (please follow the pattern.) Now will it still be said that the earth is the sanctuary? Can any proof be adduced that the earth is to be burned even, until after immortality is given to the saints? Just look at Zach. 14. chapter; here he shows us that the wicked shall be punished after “Jerusalem (the sanctuary) shall be safely inhabited,” (11th and 12th verses and onward;) and before this, in the 8th to 11th verse, he has shown us that the land shall be turned into a plain; the 8th and 9th verses shows who does it, and how it is accomplished; and then of the sanctuary, Jerusalem, as though it was understood that this was done for the express purpose of making a foundation for the building. Here I think any one may see, that the border of this heavenly sanctuary will extend to the “mountain of his inheritance,” (Exodus 15:17; Psalm 78:54) and this plain for the location and walls of the sanctuary will be made clean and pure. This is all the cleansing the earth will receive, until after “the great battle of God Almighty.” So then, if the earth is the sanctuary, God’s people need have no trouble here about its being cleansed, for they will have that work to do in immortality; but we believe that work is now being accomplished. Again, “how long shall the sanctuary and the host be trodden under foot.” Jesus said that old “Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.” But how ridiculous to believe that the heavenly sanctuary is “trodden under foot.” Is it any more so than to believe what St. Paul tells us, concerning the High Priest of these “heavenly places” in the heavens. See Hebrews 10:29. “Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing.” So we can see according to Paul’s exposition, if they have trodden the master under foot, how much more the building and the household, (“the sanctuary and host.”) In the preceding verses it is explained; just read 10th, 11th and 12th verses; the papal power of Rome, the abomination which maketh desolate, casting down some of the host and stars to the ground and stamping upon them; also casting down the sanctuary and the truth to the ground by satanic influence - this is treading down, connected with which is all other ungodly antichristian influences operating against it, which is to be purged out: even as the high priest here on earth cleansed the pattern once a year, which was never literally trodden down by any one but himself while in the act of cleansing it. BP1 31.3

The angel did not answer the question concerning the host in the 13th verse, but Gabriel at his second visit showed Daniel that seventy weeks were determined upon his people, leaving 1810 years more to be explained at his third and last visit to him. See 10:14; “Now I am come (for what?) to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days.” Please read on to the end of the twelfth chapter and see how faithfully he has described the host (the holy people) and one clothed in linen, (the Lord Jesus; see 10:21) from above the waters of the river with his hands upraised to heaven, swearing by him that liveth forever that all these wonders, (including the resurrection in 2nd verse) shall be finished when he, (meaning the antichristian powers which are led on and urged forward by the “prince of the power of the air,”) shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, by the process of purifying, being made white, and tried, and if they pass through and withstand all this fiery ordeal and come to the 1335 days, they shall be blessed, and then be delivered out of such a time of trouble as never was since there was a nation. Thus, I think, the angel has described the treading down the host, and it appears to me that all this severe discipline is to prepare them to enter the holy city, for an angel crying with a mighty voice has shown them that they have been in company with devils, foul spirits, and every unclean and hateful bird; and another voice says, come out of her my people, for all nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Revelation 18:2, 4. And the poison has operated to such an alarming extent that it has baffled the skill of all the Doctors of Divinity in the universe, and in spite of all their preaching, fasting and praying, with the assistance of the principals of the flock, the famine prophesied of by Amos the Prophet, has come upon them. How awfully he describes it: “Wandering from sea to sea, and from the north to the east, running to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.” God never called his people out from any other place than the churches; if the whole truth, the meat in due season had been given and received there, and Babylon’s poisonous cup rejected, then there would have been no severity in the discipline of its members. The handling of God’s word deceitfully, (for it would not be admitted to say of learned men, ignorantly,) has led the professed world into this labyrinth; and men are now being ridiculed and laughed at (not only because they believe and are looking for the Lord himself to descend from heaven because they are now sending forth their epistles to (as they think) enlighten their brethren and friends concerning the coming of Christ in the “clouds of heaven,” by subscribing themselves “yours, no longer gazing up into heaven;” “yours, in the clouds of heaven - meeting the Lord in the air;” while another one in the Shaker’s camp in N. H., is shouting and rejoicing that he has found the Mount Zion, (meaning, of course, the holy city) and that the Germans from Europe are gathering to it; while another, from another quarter, (as I understand standing on the “broad platform”) has attempted to prove that the powers of the heavens have been shaken, and the sign of the Son of man in heaven has been seen; and another one saying that “God is as much in one place as another!” while another is shouting Hallelujah, because he believes it to be so clear that the “saints are the holy city;” and yet another subscribes himself “yours, in the kingdom.” O, says one, how alarming these things are! they look just like the “perilous times” St. Paul described to Timothy for the “last days.” 2 Timothy 3:4, 5. Jesus also, in Matthew 24:24. I wish the good ministers would teach them sound doctrine; the great trouble would be to ascertain in what denomination to find them, for I have lying before me the creed of a professed Orthodox church of 1844, (right opinion, true belief) of this enlightened place, signed by its two ministers and one hundred and forty-seven members, (one of them a minister in New-Bedford with a similar flock) who say in their fifth article, “I believe that Christ came to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth, which is the visible church.” Now all the proof they offer from the Scriptures is what follows: “And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” “And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Matthew 16:18; Luke 1:33. Now if there is one particle of proof from these two passages, that Christ has established his kingdom here, and that kingdom is the church, then I confess I do not understand English. In the second article the only proof adduced for “and Almighty Saviour” is Hebrews 17:25. Their doors are wide open for members, but they must assent to this creed. Why continue to pray “THY KINGDOM COME?” I wish to be distinctly understood, that I do not mean anything invidious. I am only stating the truth in behalf of “God’s word;” for I believe that all the nominal churches in this place, (and they all profess to be right) are holding the same or similar unscriptural errors that has led the world around them astray, not because they are more ignorant than in other places, for I believe for general intelligence they will compare with any place of its numbers on the habitable globe. The ministers too, with one exception, I believe, are all college bred. And this creed, be it remembered, is the most modern and modest of any in the place, for I believe it is the fashion now when the church is remodeled to remodel the creed also, no matter how orthodox it was before, there are various ways to understand the scriptures, but when once the creed is published, all the members, old and young, must assent to the truth of it as their standard, until some one, more skilled in this business, proposes an alteration. What a burlesque on the never changing truth of the great eternal! Why follow in the footsteps of Popery to trammel the mind? Why not as well require a rule to get money? Then if we are destitute of the true light from the word of God in this enlightened place, where in the name of the Lord, in any other village or city, can it be found? God has said that “light is sown for the righteous,” and “unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” Psalms. But I must pass on - I have dwelt much longer on this lamentable picture than I intended, and yet I have hardly begun. BP1 33.1

I wish here to ask a few questions on one of the greatest errors that the world ever embraced, first established by Pope Gregory, A. D. 603. I mean the changing of God’s seventh day, Sabbath, (for it is sheer sophistry to call it the Jews Sabbath, as Jesus our divine Lord says “it was made for man,”) to the first day of the week. BP1 35.1

Paul says, “There therefore remaineth a keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God.” Isaiah shows us that in the New Heavens and Earth all flesh shall keep the “Sabbath.” Does any bible reader believe that this will be on any other day than what God has ordained. Let us look at the patterns and shadows of the true. Hebrews 8:5; 9:5 and 10:1. Is not the true in the eternal state? Think you that God will ever change the true to answer the pattern of Popery, that has been foremost in desolating the world? Every candid mind says no! What should we do then? God will tell us. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the S E V E N T H I S T H E S A B B A T H of the Lord thy God; (perhaps the minister will tell you he meant the Jewish Sabbath - don’t you believe him nor any one else; they can’t prove it by the Bible) in it thou shalt not do any work;” “wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 22. Why all this costly array in “building the Tabernacle and afterwards the Temple?” Answer, it was to put the Ark in. 2 Samuel 2-7. Hear David 1 Chronicles 17:2, 12. What was the Ark? A small chest in which was a precious relic; the commandments of God; his testimony to man; (see Exodus 25:10, 12) how it is guarded night and day by Cherubims. What are these commandments to us? They that keep them shall “enter in through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14. Will you say then that the fourth commandment is abolished? If so, please cite us to the chapter and verse. I say it cannot be found within the lids of the bible. Will you reply by saying that the first day is the Sabbath, or that it was ever kept by Jesus or his apostles as a day set apart for religious worship; if so, where is the text? I challenge the world to produce it! If it cannot be found, why violate still this sacred command of God and reject all the light that is thrown in your pathway? God will have some to keep his commandments, if it be but “one of a city and two of a family.” Jer. Some endeavor to clear their conscience by saying there is no Sabbath to be kept. This, to me, looks like infidelity. BP1 35.2

I have stated that one writer had asserted that the powers of Heaven had been shaken and the sign of the Son of man been seen. His argument on the twenty-fourth of Matthew, I like much, until he begins to prove what none of us have yet seen or heard. If so, why continue to say that “men’s hearts fail them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming on the earth.” Jesus does not say that they will be looking for him, but then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, when they have seen the preceding signs. What arguments are there yet to be presented that will so alarm the Laodicean church, and scoffer, to fulfil. Isaiah 60:14, and Revelation 3:9. It appears to me that nothing short of the voice of God will do this. Then, I think, the wise will understand, and get their blessing, as in Daniel 12:12; then will they return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; then will they be found with the world, in the time of Daniel’s trouble; they will then have passed through the “fiery trial” and the Sealing Angel have done his last work. This, as it looks to me will be the time when God will roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem - and the heavens and the earth will shake; then shall Jerusalem be holy. Joel 3:16, 17. It will then be cleansed from every impurity. This, I think, will be the shaking of the powers of heaven, for then will God’s people know that he dwells in Zion, (17th verse) not in the Shaker’s camp, but in his Heavenly Sanctuary, and then shall appear the “Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven,” the “Holy Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God; And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone clear as crystal.” I have not the least particle of doubt but that it will be seen just as he has described it. The glory and effulgence of that sight will so light up the heavens in its majestic course down from the parted skies, that we shall have no further need of the telescope; but in the language of our adorable coming Lord, exclaim “I see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man”! This, I think, will be the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven. A telescopic view of the burning bright star Sirius, on the southeast of the belt of Orion, in the southwestern heavens, early in the evening, will give a faint view of the above description. BP1 36.1

St. John saw this City suspended in the air, he therefore had a clear view of its twelve foundations and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, and the twelve gates, and the names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” “And he measured the wall a hundred and forty and four cubits,” two hundred and sixty-two and a half feet, and they were studded with all kinds of precious stones, and diamonds from the bowels of the earth, while the gates are adorned with the treasures of the ocean. Now this beautiful description of the City is given in the twenty-first chapter, from 16 to 18 and 21st verses. We must keep it distinct from the walls. He says, it lieth four square, and measures twelve thousand furlongs. This sum, divided by eight furlongs, which make a mile, would stand thus: 8)12000 - fifteen hundred miles square or seven millions nine hundred and twenty thousand feet on six sides (it being a cubical form.) When we look at the size of this City of Gold, we are at once almost overwhelmed with the view of its dimensions, Fifteen hundred miles high, long and wide! In the seventeenth verse, he gives but one way to measure the wall, and that is its height. If he had undertaken to have given the contents of the City by the same rule, he would have measured the wall. BP1 37.1

Then we have nothing more to do in making an arithmetical calculation, but follow the Apostle’s description. Jesus said, in my Father’s house are many mansions. Now, allowing twelve feet between joints for a story, this seven millions nine hundred and twenty thousand feet square would give six hundred and sixty thousand stories, twelve feet high, (Ezekiel 40:7,) and fifteen hundred miles square, four hundred and forty stories to a mile: which would amount to 990,000,000, nine hundred and ninety millions of square miles on a level surface, twelve feet high - equal to the square miles contained in five worlds like this, (which is only one hundred and ninety-nine millions five hundred and twelve thousand square miles,) and seventy times more extensive than the Continent of America. Now six hundred and sixty thousand twelve foot rooms in each story, would make in all 435,600,000,000 - four hundred and thirty-five thousand and six hundred millions of twelve feet square “rooms,” -Ezekiel; “places,” - John; or “mansions,” - Jesus. It is computed that there are 900,000,000 - nine hundred millions of inhabitants now on the Earth. The Bible informs us that there was but one, six thousand years ago. Admit that there was nine hundred millions at the commencement of creation, and this number had passed away every thirty years for two hundred generations, their whole number would only amount to 180,000,000,000 - one hundred and eighty thousand millions, a little more than one-third of the mansions in this building; four hundred and eighty-four to every human being now on the earth. Surely, this looks like an “abundant entrance” into the everlasting kingdom. O yes, say many, I see there is abundance of room for every body! The apostle tells us who they are. He says, “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 then is the capacious and glorious “golden City;” the “New Jerusalem;” the “heavenly Sanctuary;” the “Bride of the Lamb’s Wife;” the “Mother of us all;” the “Paradise of God;” the capital of our coming Lord’s E V E R L A S T I N G kingdom, which is now about to descend from the “third heaven” by the way of the open door, down by the “flaming sword” of Orion. O let us see to it, that we are all ready to enter into this celestial City. BP1 38.1