The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

sea is a symbol of the masses of people in a restless, unstable, anarchistic condition. Such
a condition amongst humanity will have ceased, when the new order of things is
introduced at the beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ and His saints. The symbol
therefore teaches that under this new government which will rule in equity and
righteousness and for the benefit of all, the social order will be of such a character, and will
soon after its introduction prove so satisfactory to mankind as a whole, that there will be
no more dissatisfaction, discontent, and restlessness; every element of society will be
contented under the control of that perfect law and order; and justice will be secured to all
alike. There will be an utter obliteration of the difference between classes--caste, wealth,
and poverty, etc., which now exist. Consequently there will be no more symbolic sea.
"And I John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."--Ver. 2.
We have now come to the consideration of the last vision--that of the City of God, the Holy
City itself. St. John in this vision catches a view of this celestial City, the New Jerusalem.
He afterwards has a vision describing it particularly.
The conception that has prevailed to a very wide extent in the past, and still obtains at the
present time even amongst expositors, is that this vision describes a literal city--literal even
to its material and measurements and other details, and that it is to be, as a literal city, the
eternal abode of the saints. Now as we have found that all the other visions throughout
this wonderful book have described in symbol the earthly things with which we are
familiar, how much more should we expect that the future heavenly, eternal things, of
which no mortal eye hath seen, would be portrayed in terms of the very highest imagery.
How little should we expect that the glimpse which is here given us into the unseen
heavenly world would reveal to us the shape of buildings or the material used in the
construction of them, the city's walls, its length, breadth, and height. All these things
which are mentioned later in the vision are without doubt symbols.
"Come, I will show thee the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb" (Ver. 9), are the words of the
revealing angel to St. John; and he was borne away in spirit to a great and high mountain
and from there he was shown "the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God." A city is always, in one way of looking at it, identified with its
inhabitants, and so in this sense the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, stands for or represents
the official organization of Christ and the saints in glory, constituting them the
government or Kingdom of God. Thus a city in Revelation is a symbol of a government,
and so this Holy City represents a literal government, even the spiritual heavenly
government of the new order. However, it should be kept in mind that it is a heavenly, a
spiritual, Divine government, and while in the very fullest sense real, it will be unseen to
mortal eyes. It is what may properly be termed the capital city, or government of the new
dispensation--the legislative order, by whose authority the laws are made and enforced. It
is called in the writings of the Prophets, "Zion": "And the law shall go forth of Zion."
(Micah 4:2.) It is therefore a City to which the glorified joint-heirs with Christ belong, in
the sense that they are organized, and the various parts of this organization are all united