Usually, a building or a property is entered through a door or gateway. Formerly towns were protected by walls and towers, the only entrance being through strongly fortified gates. According to custom, house doors were barred, and the gates of cities safeguarded. Sentries were always on guard, and entrance was denied to any but those who could establish satisfactory identity. The customs of our own day are somewhat different; yet credentials and passports, tariffs and registration of various kinds, act as a protection against the intrusion of undesirable visitors. Closed doors may serve as a protection against intruders, or may imprison those within them. Opened doors may admit welcome guests, or may allow enemies to gain entrance.
Applied to our thinking, this allegorically shows it to be of the utmost importance that with wisdom and understanding we exclude wrong thoughts which would enter our consciousness, and admit only those which are good.
In the book of Revelation we find a beautiful promise: "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." It may be asked, What is this gate, through which to enter, and into what city? Christ Jesus said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." He also said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," showing that in following the Christ, the manifestation of divine Love, they would understand God, and dwell in the kingdom of heaven, harmony.
