transparent glass" (21:21). Our feet shall tread on gold! These feet
contrasting white of the pearly gates;—how refreshing to the eye, how rich the scene—like sunlight and moonlight giving full effect to each other's peculiar lustre! Never have we stood within such halls; never have we seen gates like these open to bid us welcome, or close behind us to tell that we had done with darkness and sorrow for ever.
These gates are never shut (21:25). That is, they are ever opening to receive the inhabitants—never barred so as to deny access, as the gates of earthly cities are (Neh. 7:3). Of the earthly city it is said, "Thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought" (Is. 60:11). So of the heavenly city it is written, "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 honour of the nations into it" (21:25, 26). Thus free is the access, thus abundant is the welcome. Never shall it be said of that city, "And the door was shut" (Matt. 25.) Yet, wide open as the gates are standing, "nothing that defileth shall enter;" no tempter shall have access; no curse shall steal in; no death there seek a prey. Only the voice of praise shall go and come. The tide of melody shall pass in and out: for, as of the lower so of the upper city, it may be said, "They shall call thy gates Praise" (Is. 60:18). Up from the multitudes below shall the song ascend upon the breezes of the new earth, and enter in at these gates of praise; while down from these "numbers without number "that fill the city, shall pour the descending song upon the worshippers below, finding its way through these same gates of pearl.
And as our lot on earth was "to go without the camp," that we, might share the shame of Him who "suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13:12), so shall it be our lot hereafter to be within the gates, and to be partakers of the endless glory which these gates inclose.
5. Its streets.—"And the streets of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (21:21). Our feet shall tread on gold! These feet that have trodden the desert-sand or the swampy moorland, or the flinty rock, or the cold mountain slope, shall walk on streets of gold—