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Rh Standing in the midst of it, how easy it seemed to transport one's self in thought to that similar scene mentioned in the book of Esther i, 4, 7, where, nearly five hundred years before Christ, Ahasuerus, the Persian, “who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia,” displayed his magnificence during the seven days' feast “in the court of the garden of the king's palace, where were white, green, and blue hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; the beds [or seats] were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble.” Verses 5 and 6.

As Dr. Clarke has remarked, the term paradise “is applied to denote splendid apartments, as well as fine gardens; in a word, any place of pleasure and delight.” And is not this exactly the idea of the paradise described in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation — the golden city, with its jasper walls and gates of pearl, in the midst of the garden of God, with the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, and the tree of life yielding its fruit every month?

In speaking of it Jesus says, “In my Father's house are many mansions.” “I go to prepare a place for you.” “They shall walk with me in white.” “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” How Oriental are all these thoughts! I have seen the princely Asiatic host, with his guests around him in their white flowing robes, moving through his beautiful garden, as he entertained them with his fellowship, with music, and the freest use of the bounties around them; and the earthly scene has been a vivid image of what the heavenly paradise will be to the redeemed, when they shall find themselves at last in the garden of God, with Jesus as their host, having the right of entrance to his glorious audience hall, and the amazing honor of sitting down with him upon his sapphire throne, in the presence of the host of heaven! See Exod. xxiv, 10; Ezek. i, 26; Rev. iii, 21.

The crown worn on the head of the Great Mogul was worthy of the Khass and the throne on which he sat. It was made by the