Revelation 21:10

10. In the spirit In the visional trance.

Great and high mountain Not as the place on which the city was built, but as the standpoint of his survey of the city. So one gets a view of the old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

It would doubtless require a very high mountain to afford a clear view of this metropolis of heaven. Apparently on a vast plain of the heavenly land, it rose up before the seer a stupendous luminous cube. It stood upon the surface 375 miles square, and towered up into the pure space 375 miles high! Of this cube the sides were jasper; a softly green transparency. And, as the divine Essence was centralized in the city, so this city cube was a vehicle of his glory which radiated a soft, vernal day over this heavenly earth. It was a great Kohi-noor, throwing light and life over the celestial world. Of this cubic city twelve layers of precious stones formed the basement; each layer of different hued radiance. So that this basement presented to the eye so many horizontal streaks of various brilliant colours.

Into each of the four walls there opened three lofty gates; each gate made of one massive pearl. The material of the solid city structure was a transparent gold, divided by streets and squares and places. No grander conception of the kind ever proceeded from the genius of poet or painter. And if the extraordinary height seems enormous, we must remember that it is a capitol as well as a capi tal. The angel-like citizens of the land of the resurrection, to whose will gravitation is subordinate, have no difficulty with its lofty chambers; and here may be laid up the books (Revelation 20:12) of the universal library, and the archives of the divine Sovereign over the nations of this wide and glorious monarchy.

We have narrated in such order as might give a united impression of this cube-city. The seer, however, narrates in the order that the perceptions of the distant object dawned upon his eye. Note, Revelation 1:12-15. First the general contour of jasper-hued walls, with the gates and foundations, 11-14. Then a regular measurement of its magnitudes, 15-17. Then a detailed picture of the many-coloured foundations, 18-21. Then its illumination, irradiating the nations, who frequent it from afar, 22-27. Last, are the throne, and the tree and river of life, Revelation 22:1-5. And that closes this apocalypse in triumphal glory. Old Babylon has been sent to hell, and New Jerusalem brought from heaven.

Descending This resplendent block, itself of mountain size, John sees (so he declares in Revelation 21:2) descending from the opened firmament, and taking its position on the plane of the celestial earth.