The substance of the vision is a description of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the true Church of God wholly separated from the false Church, as she comes down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Her marriage with the Lamb has taken place,--a marriage in which there shall be no unfaithfulness on the one side and no reproaches on the other, but in which, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, the Lord shall for ever rejoice in His people, and His people in Him. Then follows, to enhance the picture, a detailed account of the true Church under the figure of the city which had been already spoken of in the first vision of the chapter. The treasures of the Seer's imagination and language are exhausted in order that the thought of her beauty and her splendour may be suitably impressed upon our minds. Her _light_--that is, the light which she spreads abroad, for the word used in the original indicates that she is herself the luminary--is like that of the sun, only that it is of crystalline clearness and purity, _as it were a jasper stone_, the light of Him who sat upon the throne.[563] She is "the light of the world."[564] The city is also surrounded by _a wall great and high_. She is "a strong city." "Salvation has God appointed her for walls and bulwarks."[565] Her walls have _twelve gates_, and _at the gates twelve angels_, those to whom God gives charge over His people, to keep them in all their ways[566]; while, as was the case with the new Jerusalem beheld by the prophet Ezekiel, _names were written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel_.[567] These gates are also harmoniously distributed, three on each side of the square which the city forms. The _foundations of the city_, a term under which we are not to think of foundations buried in the earth, but rather of courses of stones going round the city and rising one above another, are also _twelve_; and on them are _twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb_.
The Seer, however, is not satisfied with this general picture of the greatness of the new Jerusalem. Like that in Ezekiel, the city must be measured.[568] When this is done, her proportions are found, in spite of the absence of all verisimilitude, to be those of a perfect cube. As in the Holy of holies of the Tabernacle, the thought of which lies at the bottom of the description, _the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal_. _Twelve thousand furlongs_, or fifteen hundred miles, the city stretches along and across the plain, and rises into the sky,--twelve, the number of the people of God, multiplied by thousands, the heavenly number. The wall is also measured--it is difficult to say whether in height or in thickness, but most probably the latter--_a hundred and forty and four cubits_, or twelve multiplied by twelve.
The measuring is completed, and next follows an account of the material of which the city was composed. This was gold, the most precious metal, in its purest state, _like unto pure glass_. _Precious stones_ formed, rather than ornamented, its twelve foundations. Its gates were of pearl: _each one of the several gates was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass_. In all these respects it is evident that the city is thought of as ideally perfect, and not according to the realities or possibilities of things.
Nor is this all. The glory of the city is still further illustrated by figures bearing more immediately upon its spiritual rather than its material aspect. The outward helps needed by men in leading the life of God in their present state of imperfection are dispensed with. There is _no temple therein: for the Lord, God, the Almighty, is the temple thereof, and the Lamb. The city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God lightens_ it by day, _and the lamp thereof_ by night _is the Lamb_. There is in it no sin, and every positive element of happiness is provided in abundance for the blest inhabitants. _A river of water of life, bright as crystal_, flows there; _and on this side of the river and on that side is the tree of life_, not bearing fruit only once a year, but _every month_, not yielding one only, but _twelve manner of fruits_, so that all tastes may be gratified, having nothing about it useless or liable to decay. The very _leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations_, and it is evidently implied that they are always green. Finally, _there shall be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb is therein. His servants do Him service. They see His face. His name is in their foreheads._ They are priests unto God in the service of the heavenly sanctuary. _They reign for ever and ever._