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Satan's fiery darts cannot surmount the walls of the New Jerusalem. The decalogue is not needed there. The groves and high places of that fair country are never abused to idolatrous purposes. There is no Canaanite in the land. In that abode there are no lusts, no relics of sin, no ebullitions of passions; hence, no upbraiding of conscience, and no confession to be made. Paul never exclaims, "O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

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"No hidden grief,

No wild and cheerless vision of despair,
No vain petition for a swift relief,

No tearful eyes, no broken hearts are there.

The storm's black wing

Is never spread athwart celestial skies;
Its wailings blend not with the voice of spring,
As some too tender flow'ret fades and dies.

Let us depart,

If home like this await the weary soul.

Look up, thou stricken one! Thy wounded heart

Shall bleed no more at sorrow's stern control.”

CHAPTER XIII.

HOLINESS OF HEAVEN.

O, mother dear, Jerusalem,
When shall I come to thee?
When shall my sorrows have an end.
Thy joys when shall I see?
O, happy harbor of God's saints!

O, sweet and pleasant soil!

In thee no sorrows can be found,
No grief, no care, no toil.

WILLIAM BURKITT.

Now just as the gates were opened to let in the men, I looked in after them, and behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets, also, were paved with gold; and in them walked many men, with crowns on their heads, palms in their hands, and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were also of them that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!" And after that they shut up the gates; which when I had seen, I wished myself among them.

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BUNYAN.

It has been remarked that a great city is a great evil. Aristotle insisted that governments ought to prevent the accumulation of inhabitants in large towns. In modern times more than one sovereign has attempted to do it. It is undeniable that, while commerce, the arts, and other branches of civiliza

tion, are greatly indebted to cities, at the same time it has been at a fearful expense of life, comfort and morals. It is in these populous centres that the pestilence dwells permanently, or most frequently pays its terrific visits. An excess of burials over births is no unusual circumstance. The poverty and manifold wretchedness, commonly concealed from public view, are truly appalling. But it is in the ingenious and stupendous frauds, in the covert and shameless vices, in the records of police and other courts, those vast folios of loathsome and startling abominations, that we find most convincing proof that a great city is a great evil. Whatever exceptions there may have been, whatever of splendor and refinement may generally be found in them, it has still been true that ever since Nimrod laid the foundations of Babel and other cities in the land of Shinar, within these crowded precincts have been the most productive hot-beds of corruption. It is there that juvenile depravity has ripened with precocious vigor. It is there alone that wickedness becomes permanently and compactly organized, presenting a consolidated front to wholesome laws and virtuous sentiments. There only are found the theatre, and other public spiracles of the bottomless pit.

"Thither flow,

As to a common and most noisome sewer,
The dregs and feculence of every land."

But is this necessarily so? Is there any essential incompatibility between a congregated population and general purity and piety? Is effeminacy, is concentrated iniquity, inherent in the municipal organization? Ah! blessed be God, there is one city, called "the holy city," over which the Saviour never weeps, but in which he ever rejoices; of which he is the everlasting light and glory. "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." The guarantee to the perfect purity of New Jerusalem lies in the fact that its King is a king of infinite, immutable holiness. His intense, peculiar presence must exclude all the impure, and must completely and powerfully assimilate to himself all who bear, in any measure, a moral resemblance.

With regard to unfallen angels, it would seem that the great crisis in their history is past. At a period of revolt they remained loyal; and, without presumption, we may suppose them to be already

confirmed in holiness. Certainly, at the consummation of all things, their character and state will be established beyond all uncertainty.

But with regard to the redeemed of the Lord, they who alone, not being original citizens, enter there, it appears that they become at once freed from all original sin. That deep-seated and pervading corruption of their nature is never wholly removed in this world. Despite regeneration, and the farthest advances in sanctification, the body of death remains a fearful encumbrance. The consequence is a continued struggle, and, along with all the fruits of the Spirit, an intermingling of irregular desires and unholy emotions. But that conflict terminates at death. The stains of apostasy are then all effaced, and believers wake up in the likeness of God. Once introduced into the heavenly metropolis, where the soul is perfectly exposed to that glory of God which is the light of heaven, the saint has no desire and no need of concealment. A perfect transparency pervades his spirit. He has now no secret sins to be set in the light of God's countenance. "There can in no wise enter therein anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination." Inbred depravity, that awful source of all mischief and abominations, will be completely

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