and immensity; the gold and precious stones remind as that it is necessary to have the gold of true charity and the gems of virtues and good works. Thus only can we enter this city of gleaming gold and sparkling gems. "Despairing of putting into words this the most sub lime part of his vision, and wishing to depict it in consonance with our understanding, St. John has recourse to the harmonious proportions of numbers, and the varied and delicate tints of precious gems. Until we see heaven and are bathed in the full light of God, w T e shall never discover all that the Apostle desired to convey thereby; but while here below, nothing gives us a loftier notion of heaven's blessedness than beholding St. John, the most enlightened and inspired of sacred writers, utterly powerless to express in human language the delights it holds in store for us." [1] We can only say with St. Paul: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him." [2]
22, 23. No temple is found in the heavenly city because God and the Lamb are themselves the temple. There every soul is united to God and flooded with the light of His eternal glory which renders useless all created light.
24-27. The elect of all nations shall dwell in this "light inaccessible" [3] and the kings of earth shall bring
