Vision of the Reward of the Faithful
45
bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others had but
few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all
clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet.
Angels were all about us as we marched over the sea of glass to the
gate of the city. Jesus raised His mighty, glorious arm, laid hold of the
pearly gate, swung it back on its glittering hinges, and said to us, “You
have washed your robes in My blood, stood stiffly for My truth, enter
in.” We all marched in and felt that we had a perfect right in the city.
Here we saw the tree of life and the throne of God. Out of the
throne came a pure river of water, and on either side of the river was
the tree of life. On one side of the river was a trunk of a tree, and a
trunk on the other side of the river, both of pure, transparent gold. At
first I thought I saw two trees. I looked again, and saw that they were
united at the top in one tree. So it was the tree of life on either side of
the river of life. Its branches bowed to the place where we stood, and
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the fruit was glorious; it looked like gold mixed with silver.
We all went under the tree and sat down to look at the glory of
the place, when Brethren Fitch and Stockman, who had preached the
gospel of the kingdom, and whom God had laid in the grave to save
them, came up to us and asked us what we had passed through while
they were sleeping. We tried to call up our greatest trials, but they
looked so small compared with the far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory that surrounded us that we could not speak them out,
and we all cried out, “Alleluia, heaven is cheap enough!” and we
touched our glorious harps and made heaven’s arches ring.
With Jesus at our head we all descended from the city down to this
earth, on a great and mighty mountain, which could not bear Jesus up,
and it parted asunder, and there was a mighty plain. Then we looked
up and saw the great city, with twelve foundations, and twelve gates,
three on each side, and an angel at each gate. We all cried out, “The
city, the great city, it’s coming, it’s coming down from God out of
heaven,” and it came and settled on the place where we stood. Then
we began to look at the glorious things outside of the city. There I saw
most glorious houses, that had the appearance of silver, supported by
four pillars set with pearls most glorious to behold. These were to be
inhabited by the saints. In each was a golden shelf. I saw many of the
saints go into the houses, take off their glittering crowns and lay them
on the shelf, then go out into the field by the houses to do something