wall with gates on every side, that is the picture. What does it mean? The wall excludes, the gate admits. You cannot scale the wall, but you may enter by the gate. You may enter the city of God, but you must enter by the appointed way. It is the new and living way which Jesus has opened to us. Within is the host of those who have been redeemed with precious blood; that blood avails for you. Without are those who reject the Saviour, though he died for them. The wall divides, but the gate invites. Though you stand outside, you may enter, and take your place with the people of God and share the joys of heaven.

II

THE GATES

“Having twelve gates."

Rev. 21:12

The holy city, New Jerusalem, is encircled by a wall great and high; the wall is pierced with twelve gates. The wall signifies separation. It divides those within from those without. To those who are within, the wall signifies safety, peace; to those who are without it is a threat of danger and of death. The line is clearly and sharply drawn, and the wall is impregnable. Yet there is a way by which those who are without may enter. It is the way of the gate. If the wall means exclusion, the gate means welcome. If the wall forbids, the gate invites. And the gates are always open.

There are only two classes of men recognized by Scripture, those who are within the Kingdom of God and those who are without. The wall represents the boundary of the Kingdom. The day is coming for the individual and the race when the line of division shall be forever fixed. At death we enter upon our eternal state. The earthly life determines the nature of the life beyond the grave. "All that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." John 5: 28, 29. “We must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat

of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." II Cor. 5:10. Langauge could not affirm more plainly and emphatically that the basis of the final judgment is the present life. The Master has warned us. "Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Why are they not able? Because they come too late. "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets; and he shall say, I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." Luke 13:24-27. Then is the great gulf fixed that none may cross. And in that day it shall be said, "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness still: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy, let him be made holy still."

But till that day the gates are wide open, and whosoever will may come. The wicked may turn to God. "His blood can make the foulest clean," and in that blood the sinner may wash his robes that he may have right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gate into the city. If the wall seems to shut him out, the gate lets him in.

How vast, how This New Jerusa

There are gates on every side. catholic is the Kingdom of God. lem is not the home of the Jew alone, but of mankind. Men of every race and kindred are gathered here. "They bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it"-all nations. There is room and welcome for all the tribes of earth. There are three gates on the east, looking toward China, India, Japan, with their teeming myriads of souls. There is a place for this vast multitude in the Kingdom of God, and already they are coming. The vanguard of the mighty host has entered through the gates of pearl into the city of God. There are three gates. on the north, and through them our ancestors found entrance to the Kingdom, the men of Britain and Normandy and the German forests, as far as the frozen regions toward the pole. There are three gates on the south, where three great continents, Africa, Australia, South America, shall yield their sons and daughters unto God. There are three gates on the west. The new world is as near the Kingdom as the old. From every side the nations are streaming into the city in numbers fast increasing from year to year. The multitude that no man can

number is fashioned out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues under the whole heaven. The Kingdom is a magnet that draws to itself all that is worthy in the life and achievements of men. Every race contributes its choicest and its best to adorn and enrich the city of God. The Anglo-Saxon is there with his indomitable energy and love of

freedom and inventive genius; the Latin, with his sense of beauty and artistic skill; the Chinaman, with his practical sagacity and patient toil; the Slav, with his stubborn tenacity; the Japanese, with mind quick, eager, alert; the Hindu, with his subtle thought and brooding soul and mystic temper; the Jew with his marvelous vitality and spirit of mastery, crowned with the promises of God. In him who bought them with his blood, they are all one in the holy city, "Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all." Widely as they differ, they are one in him, and his name is written upon them every one.

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The city lies open to all ages. There are gates on the east; the Kingdom opens toward the cradle. Suffer the little children to come unto me," said the Master; "forbid them not: for to such belongeth the kingdom of God." And again he said, “ Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." What a throng of little children is ceaselessly pressing into the Kingdom! Set the cradle close beside the open gate. Teach your children from their earliest years that they belong to God, that Christ died for them, that the Kingdom is theirs if they will enter. They may learn to love God as soon as they learn to love their mother, and from the beginning of conscious life may be trained to walk in his ways and do his will. It is our glad faith that all who die in infancy are saved through the grace of Christ, and he is con