The City of God
‘« Far o’er yon horizon
Rise the city towers,
Where our God abideth;
That fair home is ours!
Flash the streets with jasper,
Shine the gates with gold,
Flows the gladdening river,
Shedding joys untold.”
DEAN ALFORD.
ISAIAH liv. 11.)
HE reference is still to Jerusalem. In the former
paragraph, she was addressed as a barren wife;
here as destined to arise from her encumbering ruins,
and become the joy of the whole earth. Of course,
the primary reference is to that actual rebuilding
which took place under the direction of the good
Nehemiah. But there is a further and more spiritual meaning. These words must refer to that city of God which is ever arising amid the ruins of all other structures. Watched by the ever-attentive eye of the great Architect, wrought by unseen hands, tested by the constant application of the line of truth and the plummet of righteousness, and emerging slowly from heaps of rubbish into strength and beauty.
A description is given of the pricelessness of the structure, the privileges of the inhabitants, and the safety which is assured by the Word of God; and let us not hesitate to appropriate this blessed vision. It is put clearly within our reach by the assurance with which the chapter closes, that this is the heritage of all the servants of the Lord.
I. THE PRICELESSNESS OF THE STRUCTURE. — What an enumeration of precious stones! The sapphire, the ruby, the agate, and the carbuncle, vie with each other, and flash with varied but resplendent colour. Now, let us consider what jewels are. They are by nature only lumps of dull and inert matter: the sapphire is clay, the diamond carbon. But why the difference between their appearance and that of the ordinary soil? The answer is not easy to give; but this exquisite effect is probably due to crystallization, conducted under exceptional circumstances of convulsion, pressure, and fire. A jewel is a bit of ordinary earth which has passed through an extraordinary experience. Thus there is a special fitness in this address to the afflicted people of God — theirs are the convulsions; theirs the awful pressure; theirs the fiery baptism. They count it hard — they cannot understand why they are treated thus. But they will see it all one day, when they learn that God was making agates for windows, carbuncles for gates, and sapphires for foundations.
Foundations of sapphires. The sapphire is one of the fairest of jewels. It is born in the darkness; but it hides the secret of the rarest beauty at its heart. The blue of the sapphire perpetuates in unfading hues the loveliness of the gentian, the violet, and the forget-me-not; of the summer-sky and the - summer-sea; and of the glacier-depth, where perhaps the deepest blue is to be seen in the walls of ice-rock. It is frequently mentioned in Scripture. The elders saw a pavement of sapphire under the feet of the God of Israel. It was fifth among the precious stones in the breastplate, and second among the foundations of the New Jerusalem. Blue is the most prevalent colour in Nature, forming the background of sea, and sky, and distance; it also predominated in the tabernacle and temple, when it was always coupled with gold in the description of the sacred furniture. As the gold was emblematic of the glory and majesty of God, so was blue of ek love and grace in Jesus.
It is very suggestive to be told that the foundations of the Divine structure are laid with sapphires. TZhey are full of
Jove: the sapphire is the emblem of love; and underneath our lives, underpinning the history of the world of men, the one ultimate fact for us all is the love of God. Go down as deep and as far as you will, you must come at last to the bed-rock of God’s love in Christ. They are stable: jewels are the most lasting of all earthly objects, as imperishable as they are beautiful. Such is the basis of Christian hope. Not a dream of the fancy; not a structure of clouds, which a puff of wind may hurl into red ruin; or a pictured reflection of giant mountain forms on the bosom of the lake, which may be destroyed by the fitful breeze: but enduring afd eternal as the throne of God. TZhey are fair: the loveliness of God’s world is not only in what meets the eye, but reaches into the unseen. Not only does He lavish beauty on flowers, and woodlands, and outspread landscapes; but on the massive foundations of the earth, where lie the pure white quartz, the granite and porphyry, with their rich veins and colours. But how fair are the foundations of our religion! — the covenant made in the council chamber of eternity; the blood of the atonement; the identification of the Redeemer with the lost; the eternal purpose which from all ages God has purposed in Himself that grace should conquer sin.
Windows of agates. Agates are varieties of quartz, and bear evidently in their texture the mark of fire. Indeed, they are. always found in the igneous rocks, from which they drop out when such rocks decompose under the action of water and air. The agate is partially transparent: not opaque, as flint; not transparent, as rock-crystal — it admits light, tempering it as it passes.
God makes windows of agates; that may be interpreted to mean that He takes our sorrows and makes them windows through which we may gaze into the unseen. We shall not in this world see eye to eye, or know as we are known. The medium of our seeing will always be partially obscured. But let us be very grateful that we can see at all. In sorrow we see the unsatisfying nature of the world, and the reality of the unseen; we learn to appreciate the tenderness and delicacy of human love; we have insight into the meaning of God’s providences; we behold the value and truth of Scripture.
Windows of agates, but still windows. O tossed with tempest and not comforted, thou wilt yet have to praise thy God that thou wert passed through the fire, if only that thou mightest see!
Gates of carbuncles. There is a good deal of uncertainty as to the precise stone indicated by the Hebrew word rendered “carbuncle.” It seems better, therefore, to take the suggestion of the duplicate vision in the Apocalypse, and to think of Gates of pearl. The pearl is said to result from the infliction of a wound in the oyster, which leads it to throw out the precious fluid that congeals into a pearl. If so, every pearl on the neck of beauty is the lasting memento of a stab of pain. At any rate, each pearl commemorates the hazard of human life in the divers descent into the ocean depths. Think of gates brought from the heart of the sea, each due to the action of suffering and at the risk of precious life. It is true of life; all our outgoings into wider ministry, nobler life, greater responsibility of blessedness, are due to the precious action of sorrow, self-sacrifice, and pain. There is no gate into the life, which is life indeed, which has not cost us dear. God makes our pearls into gates, and our gates of pearls.
When next thou art overwhelmed in sorrow and pain, or tossed with tempest and not comforted, dare to look to the outcome of thy stern discipline. It is not for the present joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward.. .... Our light affliction, which is for the moment, is like a shaft which it is difficult to turn — it strains thy every nerve; but on the other side of the wall it is grinding golden grain, the quality and weight of which will more than compensate thee. Learn, then, to look on God as making pleasant stones for the borders of thy life — the walls of salvation and the gates of praise. Is it not a blessed thing to realize that God is making jewels out of very common materials through the fire of trial and pain?
II. THE PRIVILEGES OF THE CHILDREN OF THE CITY: THEY SHALL BE ALL TAUGHT OF God. — Our blessed Lord, quoted this promise in one of his greatest utterances. “It is written in the prophets,” He said, “And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me” (John vi. 45). It is a deep and helpful thought that God has opened a school in this dark. world, and has Himself undertaken to act as Schoolmaster. He delegates to no inferior hand the sublime work of educating the human soul. But, fear not! it is the Hather who teaches. He knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. Alas, that so many hear and do not learn! There is a great contrast between these two.
How often, when we were at school, in the long summer days — far away now, when days were long — and the door stood open into the garden, our eyes have strayed from book, or copy, or slate, after the butterflies hovering over the flowers, and the big bees droning lazily past; attracted by the rabbits running across the path, and the birds flitting to and fro! We have heard, but not learned; and the lesson has been turned back. Oh, the irksomeness of those turned lessons, when all Nature awaited us outside! So do we evade those Divine lessons, given on the pages of Scripture, of conscience, or of human life, and inculcated by the Divinest tenderness. Did we truly learn of the Father, we should inevitably get to the feet of Jesus. When men say that they believe in God, but not in Jesus Christ whom He has sent, they consciously or unconsciously depart from the truth. The sincere Deist, when Christ is presented, must come to Him.
To be taught of God, to be led by his own hand into a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of Redemption, to sit at the footstep of his throne, to be a pupil in his school, to be his disciple, to have all that the psalmist so repeatedly asked when he cried, “Teach me Thy statutes; lead me in Thy way and teach me” — this is the first of the blessed privileges of the children of the city of God.
Great shall be the peace of thy children. We have first peace with God, through faith in the blood and righteousness of Christ; then the peace of God, which here is called “great,” and elsewhere “that passeth understanding.” Some parts of the ocean laugh the sounding-line to scorn. You may let out 1,000, 2,000, even 6,000 fathoms, and still the plumb falls clear.
So it is when God’s peace, driven from all the world, comes to fold its wings of rest in the heart. It is better than joy, which falters and fluctuates; better than the ecstasy which may have its reactions. Deep, sweet, still, all-pervading — eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived its like.
And these two rest on each other. The more you know God, the more peace you have; because you find Him more worthy of your trust. We have peace in each other, when we know that each is worthy of all our confidence. Peace grows from less to more; from a condition which is largely experimental to one which is fixed and everlasting; and always in proportion to the extended area of our acquaintance with God. Acquaint then thyself with Him, and-be at peace; thereby good shall come to thee. Great peace have they that love His law; and nothing shall offend them.
III. THEIR SAFETY. — The waster fulfils a useful function: the knife that cuts away the dead wood; the fire that eats out the alloy; the winnowing fan that rids the wheat of the chaff; the east wind tearing through the forest; the frost crumbling up the soil; the vast army of animals that devour and destroy. “I have created the waster to destroy.” This is the strong Hebrew way of saying that God permits, and overrules, and brings out good by means of the evil that had seemed destructive of all good.
Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try thee. Be not afraid, when thou seest the smith blowing up the fire in his forge, and bringing forth a weapon, the teeth of which might send a shudder through a stouter heart than thine. Thy God created, and can control him. Nothing which God has made can do more than He permits. Thy Father is over all; and He has said, without hesitation or reserve, that no weapon formed against his own shall prosper, and that they shall condemn all tongues raised against them in judgment.
It is impossible to escape the ordeal. It would not be good for us, if we could. “They shall surely gather against thee.” “In the world,” said the Master, “ye shall have tribulation. If they have hated and persecuted Me, they will hate and persecute you.” But they cannot really hurt. Keep on doing what is right in his sight, with a single eye for his glory, and a simple resolve to do his will. The fire may burn around thee, but only to consume thy bonds; the storm may arise against thee, but the billows which break in thunder on the beach, shall not break one splinter from the cliffs. Do not seek to vindicate or avenge thyself. Be still and know that thy God reigns. He will interpose at the exact hour of need; He will vindicate; He will turn the edge of the weapons of thy foes against themselves, and silence every accusing, whispering, calumniating voice. This is thy heritage; if thou art his servant, thine honour is in the Divine keeping.
This is the City of God, and we walk its streets day by day. We have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; its breeze fans our faces, its music fills our ears, its bright and holy inhabitants touch us in the streets, its interests and employments engage our hands. The New Jerusalem, for us at least, has come down from God out of heaven, and. is here.