This vision of the future residence of the apostles and patriarchs, appears to have been unfolded to the apostle John, in a kind of farewell visit, and must have ravished his heart with unspeakable delight and ecstacy. His soul was suffused with joy and rapture, and he fell prostrate with feelings of worship toward the messenger of such tidings. Jesus had, indeed, told the apostles that he would go away and prepare mansions for them. And that there were many mansions. But never before, probably, had he described the celestial state and residence so beautifully and minutely as now. The height, and length, and breadth of the city, and the names of some of the most distinguished personages who should occupy mansions therein, together with the gates of pearl, and the foundation walls of all manner of precious stones, were distinctly shown to him. The future residence of the Saints, we perceive, is not an ideal thing without reality. They will need houses for their persons, and for their families, as much in their resurrected condition as in their present state; they will be as sensible of the works of art, taste, beauty and grandeur there as now, and far more so. In this identical world, where they have been robbed of houses and lands, and wife and children, they shall have an hundred fold. The nations of the earth shall bring their glory into the city of their immortal residence. And the diversified wisdom of Solomon, displayed above all earthly kings, shall be but a miniature picture of the visible and tangible glories that will be exhibited to the eyes and ears of resurrected Saints on the very erarth where they once suffered. If ever an earthly sovereign sat upon a throne, and swayed a royal sceptre, and wore a glittering crown of surpassing richness and beauty, then shall men and women who have suffered loss and shame for the gospel's sake, be seated upon thrones in the city of the New Jerusalem, and their mandates shall be heard and obeyed to the ends of the earth; and the riches, and dominion, and power, and blessing, and glory, that shall encircle them, no tongue can describe. Oh! wonderful transition, from darkness to light, and from the degrading bondage of Satan into the liberty of the sons and daughters of God! Glorious emancipation! Who can contemplate the recompense of reward without ample satisfaction for all the withering scorn, and piercing sarcasm, and bloody hatred, that have been endured? Give me a name that shall never perish,--a habitation among heaven's kings,--a seat in the council of the just, where the fairest among the sons of men shall sometimes minister in his own person, and it shall suffice for having fought a good fight, and kept the faith once delivered to the Saints. Oh, enchanting prospect of rapturous delight! The thought of such amazing bliss Should constant joys create!