The “general assembly and church of the first-born” will be an assembly of picked men and women from every age, who have victoriously fought their way through the obstructions and discouragements that beset the path of righteousness in “Time’s dark wilderness of years.” Their corporate relation one to another, in the strength and grace of spirit nature, the intensity of divine intelligence, the sweetness of all-prevailing and spontaneous love, and the constant joy of everlasting life—is so glorious as only to be fully symbolized by the splendour of the New Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven, blazing with his glory in all the glowing hues and tints of stones most precious. We can enter into the abandon of delightful imagery, which informs us that “the city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God enlightens it and the Lamb is the light thereof . . . and there shall be no night there and they need no candle, neither light of the sun: for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever."

Robert Roberts