THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.



AMONG the most remarkable works of men, is the Great Wall of China. Its length is about 1250 miles, and its height from twenty to twenty-five feet, with towers about one hundred yards apart, and forty feet high. It is sufficiently broad to allow six horsemen to ride abreast upon it, and it is much thicker at the base than at the summit. Each face of the wall is built of hewn stone, or brick, with earth filled in between.

To give an idea of the quantity of material used in the construction of this great wall, it may be stated that a careful calculation has shown it to be more than sufficient to erect a wall six feet high and two feet thick, twice around the world.  Most of this great fortification is now in a ruinous condition. It was built by order of the celebrated emperor, Tchi-Hoang-Ti, for the purpose of protecting the northern and northwestern borders of the empire from the hordes of rude, wandering people, who were then very numerous in that part of Asia. These people dwelt in tents, and moved from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc. A horde consists of fifty or sixty tents. It required the labor of several millions of men, for the space of ten years, to accomplish the building of the wall. During this time, it is said that half a million of them perished. 

It was completed in 211 B. C.  Wonderful as was the Great Wall of China, it must crumble and fall, and at last be forgotten. But there is a wall, great and high, that will never crumble or decay. It is not built of perishable material, nor is it the work of men's hands. The building, or main portion of the wall, is of Jasper. Jasper is a precious stone, described as of a beautiful, transparent, green color, sometimes spotted with yellow, or veined with red. There are different varieties.

The wall has twelve foundations, adorned with all manner of precious stones of the most beautiful colors. See Revelation 21:12-21. 

It is built by the great Master Builder, and all who are saved will behold its beauty, and enter through its gates of pearl, into that city which hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God and of the Lamb shall be the light thereof.

May the readers, and the writer, be among the nations of the saved, who shall walk in the light of it.




NELLIE F. HEALD.