It is evident that there are symbols connected with this appearance of God, as truly as there were symbols connected with Christ in his appearance in chap. 19.  The throne is a symbol of judgment and of supreme sovereignty, its dazzling whiteness indicating the impartiality and justice of the proceedings.  The books, likewise, are symbols.  We are not to suppose that there are literal books in heaven, in which Christ or some angelic secretary notes down all the affairs of earth.  The language and the symbols of Scripture are accommodated to the human understanding, hence books are used as a symbol to denote that the character and the actions of men are all as perfectly known and remembered as if they had been recorded in the archives of heaven.  The book of life, in which the names of the faithful are often said to be inscribed, denotes that God knows all his chosen people.  In the following chapter it is called the Lamb’s book of life.

This scene, then, as a whole, is a sublime description of the resurrection and the final judgment of all men and the dissolution of the earth on which we now live.  That the righteous will be judged at this time is shown by the fact that the book of life, in which the names of the righteous only are recorded (Chap. 21:27; Exod. 32:33), will also be opened; and verse fifteen implies that the names of some during this judgment scene were found recorded in that book.  The wicked receive their eternal portion by being cast into the lake of fire; while the reward of the righteous is described in the remaining part of this series, contained in the two following chapters.

CHAPTER XXI.

    And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:  for the first heaven and
    the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

    2.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
    God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:  for the former things are passed away.

The events of this chapter are a continuation of the series of prophecy considered in the preceding one, only describing an entirely different phase—­the final reward and eternal home of God’s people.  We have traced many series of prophecies through the long weary pathway of centuries, only to find the termination of the powers of wickedness in the lake of fire at the end of time or their overthrow otherwise set forth under appropriate symbols; but in no instance has the final reward of God’s people after the