WHEN going to a strange country it is natural that we should desire to learn all that we can of that place. It is certain that man has never seen, nor even with his fondest anticipations has he grasped the realities of the city of God, the city of the great King. On this subject Isaiah says, "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." Isa. 64:4. Paul adds in 1 Cor. 2:9, "Neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."
If this is so, then can we know anything about them? The next verse tells us that "God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." God counsels us to study what the Spirit has said of this place, and then, tho far exceeding the farthest stretch of man's unaided imagination, yet He will illumine and unfold the different scenes. The river, the tree of life, streets of gold, gates of pearl, wall of jasper, all will be familiar, tho the vastness, the surpassing glory, the perfection of beauty, can only be seen to conceive of them fully. "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off." Isa. 33:17.
God does encourage us to study the description of the place: "Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following." Ps. 48:12, 13. The Word plainly states that the city of God is a real city, that real beings dwell there, that "thine eyes" shall see it. God says of the place, "The city lieth four-square;" it "had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates." These gates were placed three on each side of the city. Its size around was "twelve thousand furlongs." With four sides to this city, one side would be one-fourth of this, which would be three thousand furlongs, or three hundred and seventy-five miles, on either side. See Rev. 21:10-21. Who can conceive of a city so large?
Leaving the measurement of the city, its walls, gates, etc., we will look at the river, the temple, and the tree of life. Rev. 22:1, 2 says: "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." Ezekiel, speaking of this, says, "And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters