Acts 10:12

“In which were all quadrupeds, creeping things of the earth, and fowls of the air.” This vision forever sweeps away all the restrictions of the Levitical law and the rigid fortifications of exclusive Judaism in the Mosaic economy, unfurling the gospel banner to the whole Gentile world, bidding them a hearty welcome to the redeeming cross, the cleansing fountain, and the glorious triumph of Pentecostal sanctification, perfect spiritual freedom, and illimitable gospel rights and privileges. The vision has nothing to do with the problem of edibles and potables. The signification is purely spiritual and evangelical, forever smashing the impregnable walls which had separated the Jews and Gentiles from the days of Abraham, thus completing the final elimination of the last vestige of the Mosaic dispensation, now and forever superseded by Christ, the glorious Antitype, in whom all the types and symbols converge and find their triumphant verification. Doubtless the sheet was circular, representing the world, and held up by four ropes, whose ends alone were seen, the one extending from the North, the other from the South, another from the East and a fourth from the West, thus representing the four cardinal points which constitute the world, and focalizing all nations at the gospel feast. Why was the manifestation repeated thrice? At the dispersion of Noah's family from Mt. Ararat after the Flood, he divided his estate, the whole world. [Europe, Asia, and Africa; America, hidden behind the oceans, reserved for the enlargement of Europe in the latter days, and included with it.] In this distribution he gave Ham, Africa; Shem, Asia; and Japheth, Europe. In Hebrew, Ham means black, hence he became the ancestor of the black races. Shem means red, therefore he became the ancestor of the Mongolian races of Asia, from whom the American Indians also came, doubtless having crossed Behring Strait from Asia into America at an early day. Japheth means white, hence he became the ancestor of all the white races of Europe, who, in the last four hundred years, have spread out over the continent of America, pursuant to God's promise to Noah:

“God shall enlarge Japheth and shall dwell in the tents of Shem;

and Canaan [Ham] shall be his servant.” (Genesis 9:27)

This prophecy is now literally fulfilled in America, where the white man, Japheth, dwells in the tents of Shem [the Indians], and Ham [the colored people] is his servant. Hence you see the persistency of the triple gospel proclamation symbolized by the three repetitions of Jehovah's call in this vision, forcefully indicative of the world's triple evangelism as we carry the gospel to the children of the dark continent, to the Mongolian millions of Asia, and to all the white races of Europe and America.