*This paper is the last from the pen of our beloved departed brother, who has often been heard through our pages. It reached us about the time of his death, with the request that the extract from the Numerical Bible which follows this be published in conjunction.-Editor.*

"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. . . . 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 be their God."-Rev. 21 :2, 3.

As the heavenly saints are the "tabernacle of God," does this scripture teach that their final abode is to be on the earth ?

The following considerations have to be weighed. Must not such a scripture be interpreted in the light of the doctrine of the Epistles-like types, parables, and historical events ?

The Epistles teach that heaven is our portion, our inheritance, our eternal destiny; while there will also be redeemed ones on earth in the Millennium, and in the eternal state.

Col. i tells of the '' hope laid up for us in heaven "; and John (chap. 14) gives us the Lord's assurance that the Father's house, where He is, shall be our home. Peter tells us of an "inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you"; and in Matthew we are told "great is your reward in heaven." Also, in Eph. 1 the heavenly hope and the earthly are put side by side, and distinguished:"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth."

That the heavenly glory will shine upon the earth, and be in close association with it, is prefigured by the scene on the mount of transfiguration, and also by the "ladder" of Jacob's vision. And so the heavenly Jerusalem will shine upon the earth-but it does not say that it comes to the earth.

If the heavenly saints-"the tabernacle of God," "the new Jerusalem"-are to be brought down to earth for their final, eternal home, then the earth will be God's dwelling-place forever – which, of course, could not be. Heaven is His throne, and His dwelling-place.

Heaven is not the earth, and the earth is not heaven. They are distinct spheres in time and in the eternal state.

Christ was "received up into heaven," and we shall be with Him there "forever." E. S. Lyman