orever.

The dimensions of the city as measured by the angel are next given as
twelve thousand furlongs, or one thousand five hundred miles. By the
statement that the length, the breadth and the height are equal, some
have supposed that the city was one thousand five hundred miles high. To
quote the words of a certain commentator: "The language, however, will
bear another meaning, which is far more natural. It is not that the
length and breadth and height were severally equal to _each other_, but
_equal with themselves_; that is the length was everywhere the same, the
breadth everywhere the same, and the height the same. It was perfect and
symmetrical in all its proportions. This is confirmed by the fact
distinctly stated, that the wall was one hundred and forty and four
cubits high, or two hundred and sixteen feet, a proper height for a
wall; while it is said only that 'the length is as large as the
breadth.'" This writer reckoned but eighteen inches for a cubit, whereas
some figure twenty-two. A city one thousand and five hundred miles high
with a wall only two hundred and sixteen or two hundred and sixty four
feet high, would be altogether out of proportion.

The wondrous dimensions of this city set forth the fact that our future
home far exceeds in grandeur and extent everything that is looked upon
as glorious upon earth. Who ever heard of a city one thousand and five
hundred miles square? We have had empires so large, but no such cities.
In this representation the city does not encompass the entire earth as
she in one sense really does, because it would be impossible thus to
represent her and at the same time she be represented as a city within
the earth, into which the nations bring their "glory and honor." The
ancient city of Babylon with its beautiful hanging-gardens, the very
triumph of human skill, and the city itself lying in a foursquare, being
fifteen miles on each side, was unsurpassed in human loveliness. But the
city of God is represented as _fifteen hundred_ miles square, which
dimensions are out of all proportion with anything existing on earth;
hence its beauty and magnificence must be ascribed to God only.

"And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure
gold like unto clear glass." The jasper is the same crystal gem before
mentioned. What a wondrous wall it must have been! It was not made of
such common material as granite, freestone, or marble, which can make
the most imp