The use of the word "city" as a synonym for a place of refuge and safety, in both secular and sacred literature, runs far back into the traditions of antiquity. The habit of people to gather into groups for protection and the consequent building of strong defenses against their enemies led to the use in the Scriptures of the word "city" as symbolizing a place of shelter and security. After this manner, in the course of time Jerusalem came to be identified with Zion, "the holy city," the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church of God, a purely spiritual concept. In like manner, also, the security experienced by the city dweller came to be identified with that holy city, the place of final refuge and perfect peace, where all are safe from harm, where is experienced eternal bliss—even "the beauty of holiness."
It was this state of spiritual blessedness and glory which Abraham sought in the "city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." In contemplation of man's perfect state of selfhood, spiritual being, Isaiah also sang: "We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." Here, manifestly, the prophet gave verbal expression to his spiritual vision, looking upon the state of permanent blessedness as the city where all the truly righteous who keep the truth will find their permanent and eternal abode. Likewise, the Psalmist's vision of the heavenly kingdom was of a glorified city. "Beautiful for situation," he declared in the exalted phraseology of the Orient, "the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, ... the city of the great King."
The same metaphor was employed by the Revelator in giving words to his wondrous vision. He saw the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, peopled with the nations of them who are saved, walking in the light of spiritual illumination. Of this New Jerusalem, John draws a marvelous picture: "foursquare," the strongest form for defense; the walls, streets, and foundations of precious stones and metals which the human heart has been accustomed to hold as most beautiful and dearest,—truly a wondrous picture of splendor, beyond the compass of human imagination. That John's was a wholly spiritual concept, free from every phase of materiality, is evidenced from his positive declaration as to the inhabitants of this heavenly realm. "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Surely such are they who have risen above the heaviness of the earth-dream into that degree of spiritual understanding where man is seen in his true aspect as the perfect child of God.
