When La Fayette last visited this country, the people gave him a royal reception. A fleet of vessels went out to meet him, the band played "Hail to the Chief," and the national music of France; and it is told that he was unmoved.
As he came ashore, land and water trembled with the power of artillery. Old soldiers saluted him as they shouted his welcome, and he was still unmoved. With waving banners and under triumphal arches, he was taken to Castle Garden, where most of the great men of the nation were gathered together to give him greeting; and he was still not moved. But when he had taken his seat in the great amphitheater, and when the curtain was lifted he saw before him a perfect representation of the place in France where he was born and brought up; and when he saw the old home so filled with the tender memories, the home where his father and mother had lived and died, it is said that the great man was touched, and bowing his face in his hands he wept like a child. If I could only draw aside the veil which separates the seen from the unseen, so that you could behold that city which hath foundations, there would be no need for me to preach, for in the very thought of Heaven you would be almost overwhelmed. I have read descriptions of cities both in ancient and modern times, but never such a description as this; adorned like a bride for her husband; a city in which there is neither sickness nor sorrow, death nor crying; a city of walls and gates; on the east three gates, on the west three gates, on the south three gates, on the north three gates; and the walls had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The angel that made the revelation had a golden rod in his hand with which he was measuring the city, and found that the length was equal to the breadth, and that the wall was 144 cubits; that the building of the wall was of jasper; that the city was pure gold, and that the twelve gates were twelve pearls. It is said that they were wide open by day -- there is no night there; and in that city there was no need of the sun, for the glory of the Lord did lighten it, and the Lamb was the light thereof.
It comes to me like an inspiration that one day I shall enter that city. Can you say it? Your children are going in, your parents are going in, your husband is going in, your wife is going in; are you going in? It is a great joy to know that the things that bring us the representations of Heaven are so substantial. Some people tell us that Heaven is a state, not a place. What then did Christ mean when he said, "I go to prepare a place for you," and what again when he said, "In my Father's house are many mansions"? What is the doctrine of the resurrection? Is it that only the spirits of men are raised? This is not our teaching. There must be some place for the resurrected body. When Christ went out with His apostles to Bethany and a cloud received Him out of their sight. He arose bodily from their presence. It is certain, absolutely certain, that Heaven is a place.
Perhaps some may question, at first, the meaning of the text; and yet I am very sure if we only had the mind of the Spirit, we would find in it much of beauty, sweetness and power.
When the army of Galerus sacked the camp and routed the Persians, one of the soldiers found a bag of shining leather filled with pearls. He preserved the bag because of its brightness, and threw away the jewels ignorant of their almost priceless value. In many cases, passages of Scripture are treated in the same way. There is something for us all in the fact that the twelve gates were twelve pearls.
What Is Heaven?
It is a place of over-powering brightness. Everything that ever came from thence tells us so. Chariots so bright that the only thing to which they could be likened was fire. Angels with faces shining so that men must veil their eyes before them. Moses and Elias so surrounded with glory that the three disciples were overcome with the vision on the mount of transfiguration. The walls are like a great jewel, the streets of pure gold, and every single gate a pearl. You know the brightness of one little gem as it sparkles on your finger; but O! the wonderful thought that every gate is a pearl; and the day will come when we may go sweeping through the gates if we will. God has done everything that He could do, and our entering in now rests upon ourselves. But the brightness of heaven, aside from the presence of Christ, is not due to the gates, nor to the walls, nor to the streets, but to the presence of those who have been redeemed.
I have been told that the deeper the water, the larger the pearl. Whether that be true or not, I can not tell; but I know that from the greatest depths God sometimes takes His brightest jewels. It is no cause for discouragement if you have been a great sinner. Paul was a persecutor, Bunyan a blasphemer, Newton a libertine, and yet they shine today as the jewels of Christ.
Geologists tell us that the diamond is only crystallized carbon, charcoal glorified. This Book tells us something better than that, that "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Heaven is a place of unutterable sweetness. Can you imagine the number of little children there? Can anyone describe the sweetness of a child's song? And when you remember that your own little one may be there! What wonderful singing it is as their lips are touched by the finger of Christ, and their hearts are thrilled with His presence.
"O, the joys that are there mortal eye hath not seen, O, the songs they sing there with hosannas between, O, the thrice blessed song of the Lamb and of Moses, O, the white tents of peace where the rapt soul reposes, O, the waters so still and the pastures so green, There, there they sing songs with hosannas between!"
The boy who was blind makes the best expression of Heaven to me. The doctor had cut away the obstruction from his eyes, and the bandages placed there were removed one by one until after a little they had been all taken off. When he opened his eyes in silent wonder as if a new world had been opened to him, he beheld his mother, and yet he did not know that it was she. Finally he heard her familiar voice asking him, "My son, can you see?" He sprang into her arms, exclaiming, "O, mother, is this Heaven?" That is the best definition. Heaven is seeing eye to eye. knowing even as we are known. If there is one word which better than another will describe Heaven to me, it is an explanation.
"'What is Heaven?' I asked a little child, 'All joy'; and in her innocence she smiled. I asked the aged, with her care oppressed, All suffering o'er, 'Oh, Heaven at last is rest.'
I asked the artist who adored his art -' Heaven is all beauty,' spoke his raptured heart. I asked the poet with his soul of fire, 'Tis glory,' and he struck his lyre.
I asked the Christian waiting his release, A halo 'round him, low he answered, 'Peace.' So all may look with hopeful eyes above, 'Tis beauty, glory, joy, rest, peace and love."
A City Of Gates
There is something significant in the fact that Heaven is a city of gates. The idea must be that there is some special way to get in. We can not live just as we please and at the last enter Heaven; we might if it were not enclosed. The Bible tells us that we may come in from the north, the south, the east and west, but we are obliged to pass through the gates, and it is not always easy. "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way"; one might be liable to miss it. "Strive to enter in," says the Bible; so one must be very earnest. Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, the life"; "I am the door"; and again, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Some people think that God is so merciful that after awhile they may stand in His presence; but He is just as well as merciful, and He has provided the way by which every one must enter Heaven. It is through the gate. Reformation will not do, morality can not answer; it is giving up yourself to Him, putting your hand in His and letting Him lead you all the journey of life, until you pass through the gates. A child dying said to his father, "I wouldn't be afraid to go if mamma would go with me." "But," he said, "little one, she can't go." Then the child said, "I want you to go," and he said, "my darling, I can't go." Then when the child had prayed to Him who had promised to walk through the valley of the shadow, after a little while he said, "I am not afraid now, for Christ has said that He will be with me, and He will." Lift up your heads, oh, ye gates, lift them up, for the time is coming when with Jesus we shall pass through!
Gates Of Pearl
I am sure that there is some meaning in the fact that the gates are of pearl. Do you know the history of pearls? Humanly speaking, it is a history of suffering. When discovered, it is at the risk of the pearl-fisher's life. It is said that pearls are formed by the intrusion of some foreign substance between the mantel of the mollusk and its shell. This is a source of irritation, suffering and pain, and a substance is thrown. around about that which is intruded to prevent suffering; and thus the pearl is formed. Do you begin to see the significance of the fact that the gates are of pearl, and not of gold? There was a time when there was no entrance into Heaven for us; sin had closed it; man had grievously sinned, he had broken every law of God, and there was no hope for him at all. Then it was that the Babe was cradled in the manger, became a youth, grew to manhood, endured thirty-three years of suffering, culminating in the agony upon Calvary, when in the tremendous tension His heart broke. Then it was He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty; then it was that He arose from the dead, went out unto Bethany, ascended into Heaven to swing wide open the gates. And thus it is they are open today; and one never nears of the gates of pearl but he must realize in some measure what salvation cost, not so much to you and to me, but to Him -- humiliation, sorrow, suffering, death; and do you realize that every one who refuses allegiance to Him is arrayed against Him, for He said, "You are either for me or against me, there is no middle ground"?
Twelve Gates
How full the Word of God is! In its teaching, beauty and sweetness come from it with every touch. It is a rock; you can not touch it but the water of life will come forth; it is a flower, you can not come near it without being blessed by its fragrance. There is something to me even in the number of Heaven's gates. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, three on every side, and the city lieth four square. Is this not an indication that God has made abundant provision for our entrance into the city above? It is man who has narrowed down the way. The Bible invitation is, "Whosoever will, let him come." The provision is abundant. No one can stand at the judgment and say anything but this, "Lord, I might have entered, but would not." Twelve gates, and if you are not in it, it is your fault alone. God has done all that He could do. The Trinity has been exhausted, almost, on a sinful world, and He will do no more; it is for us ourselves to choose to enter in, it is very easy to be saved.
In one of the schools of a great city, by the falling of a transom a cry of fire was started. The children were panic-stricken, and the teachers as well. In rushing from the building many were injured; some were killed. When it was found that the alarm was false, returning to her room, one of the teachers found sitting at her desk a young girl who had not stirred. When asked the reason for her bravery, she said, "My father is a fireman, and he told me if ever there was an alarm of fire in the building just to sit still where I was, and he would save me. My father is a fireman and he knows, and I just trusted him." That confidence in Jesus Christ would bring salvation.
Said a man in Glasgow to a distinguished evangelist, "I am very anxious to be saved; what must I do?" The evangelist quoted many passages of Scripture to him, among them John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him," and when he had gone this far the man stopped him, saying, "But I do believe." Then the evangelist quoted the sixth chapter of John and the forty-seventh verse, Christ's own words: "Verily, verily, I say unto you he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life." The man saw it in a moment and cried out rejoicing, "I have got it, I have got it." That kind of acceptance of God brings everlasting life. Twelve gates, and every gate a pearl, and every gate exactly alike, so after all there is only one way.
The Gates Are Open
I am so glad that the gates are open today. We read that they shall not be shut at all by day, and as there is no night there, the conclusion is that they are open constantly. They are open now. Some have been going in since we have been speaking; at every tick of the clock a soul speeds away. I wish that I might go as did Alexander Cruden, seventy years of age, giving to the world his concordance, dying in want because he had given so freely to others. Going into his room they found him kneeling, his face buried in the Bible, his white hair falling down upon the chair, his spirit gone, the very angels filling the room where he had been. I wish that I might go as did David Livingstone. They looked into his tent door and said one to another, "Keep silence, the great leader is in prayer," for he was on his knees. After a little while they came back, and he seemed to be still praying; then half an hour later again, and when they touched him they found that Livingstone was dead. The chariots of God had halted while he prayed, and Livingstone, entering in, was caught up into the skies. Oh, the joy of such an entrance into Heaven!
Dr. Pierre, returning to France from India after a long journey, said that his men when they came in sight of their native land were unfitted for duty. Some of them wistfully gazed upon the land they loved. Some of them shouted, some prayed, some fainted, and it is said that when they came near enough to recognize their friends on shore that every man left his post of duty, and it was necessary for help to come from off the land before the vessel could be anchored in the harbor. Oh! the joy of thus entering Heaven. Welcome from the gates, welcome from our friends long gone, welcome from every angel in the skies. The joy, the joy of one day sweeping through the gates!
