Sometimes at the close of a summers day, you
have seen in the western horizon a semblance
of palaces and towers, glowing like transparent
gold, in the effulgence of an invisible sun. Such
was the vision of this supernal city, suspended
in mid-air before the eye of the Apostle. " Its
light was like unto a stone most precious."
External illumination it had no need of: for
the throne of God and of the Lamb was in it ;
and it was radiant with uncreated glory. Into
this holy of holies nothing can enter that
defileth, or that worketh abomination, or that

* Rev. xxi. 2—20.
THE LIFE EVERLASTING. 95

maketh a lie ; none but those who have
" washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb."* And as its unsullied
streets can never be tarnished by human guilt,
so neither can they be saddened by human woe.
No train of mourners can appear there, nor
spectacles of misery ; not even the jaded forms
of the sons of toil. The feverish din of Earth,
with all her restless strife, and sighs, and groans,
is hushed for ever. There reigns a perpetual
Sabbath, an everlasting holiday ; and not even
the shadow of evil can bedim those golden
palaces.
