But with that tree,

gave it to her husband, and he did eat." growing also in the Paradise of God, there was another, the Tree of Life, of a life eternal and incorruptible, the sign and sacrament not only of immortality, but of the blessedness which the vision of God brings to those who love Him and are obedient to His will. By their own act the representatives of mankind,—the "man," and the "mother of all that live," forfeited that immortality, and lost the power of entering into that blessedness. To them immortality would have brought but a perpetuity of evil, and that vision of the infinite holiness of God been identical with the neverending misery of condemnation. And so they passed out of that Paradise of God, the joy of child-like innocence, into the rough weary work of tilling the ground, out of which were to grow thorns and thistles, and of bringing forth the children who were to replenish the earth and subdue it. And the cherub with the flaming sword, representing, as the mysterious cherubim do throughout the Bible, the powers of nature in their might, and majesty, and terror, was placed at the entrance of the garden "to keep the way of the tree of life." Nature and man's work in nature were interposed, as it were, between the soul and its Creator, and the slow work of a painful discipline began. In the closing vision of the Apocalypse, which with a profound significance blends together in its gorgeous symbolisms the two thoughts of the Paradise of God and the heavenly Jerusalem, the same imagery reappears. "Out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" there flowed a "pure river of water of life, clear as crystal," and "in the midst of the street of the city, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month." No longer is it guarded in that vision by the cherub's fiery sword, for there shall be no more curse; and He who saith, "Behold I come quickly," who is "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last," even He saith, "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,

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and may enter in through the gates into the city." For those who are admitted to that heavenly city, whose faith is perfected by love, there is no longer the necessity for the discipline of suffering. God's education of their spirits has reached its completion. Instead of the words which implied that there was a peril in the immortality for which man was not prepared," lest he put forth his hands, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever," there is now free access to full fruition. The redeemed who walk in the heavenly city eat of its fruits; but its blessings are spread far and wide beyond the innermost circle of those who share the fulness of that heavenly joy; for "the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."

We find, then, this profoundly suggestive symbol at the beginning and the end of what is now for us the Book. But, as might be expected, it is found elsewhere also. Understood with greater or less clearness, suggesting often to men's minds more than they could explain to others or understand themselves, it entered into their loftiest hopes and inspired them with noble thoughts. Look, for example, at the vision of Ezekiel, in this as in so many other things the prototype of the seer of Patmos. He too sees a mystic stream as of the water of life, deepening more and more, from the ankles to the loins, and then "as waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over;" and "by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that," just as in the Apocalypse, "shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed; it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine." As was natural in the language of those who saw visions and dreamed dreams, who were caught up as the apostle into "the third heaven and the paradise of God," and saw "unspeakable things which it was not lawful for a man to utter," the two prophets of the Old and the New Testament give, as it were, the vision without the interpretation, and leave the symbol to do its work of quickening

man's spiritual life and suggesting profoundest truths without a formal explanation. It was left for another writer, taught by the self-same spirit, but endowed with different gifts, to complete its teaching and to unfold the meaning of that which lay beneath the outward sign. He to whom God gave wide thoughts and abounding knowledge, and largeness of heart, as the sand upon the sea-shore, showed that he had learnt the lesson, and was able to lead others. He proclaims of wisdom, the true wisdom which has its beginning in the fear of the Lord; among many other glorious words, "that her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace," that “she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth her.” Here, then, we get the key to the parables and dark sayings which have occupied our thoughts hitherto. The Tree of Life is wisdom, bringing with it immortality, making that immortality a blessing to those who seek it rightly, as contrasted with the tree of knowledge. On the one side, the restless, subtle, serpent-like activity of the intellect, the feverish craving for excitement, the passionate love of merely outward beauty, all tending downwards, stimulating sense, and ending in a boundless sensuality, working man's fall at first, and evermore repeating its fatal work as with power accumulated in its transmission; and on the other side, the wisdom, which is also life, which begins with awe, reverence, obedience, which leads to purity and holiness, to self-knowledge and self-discipline, which ripens into love, and is one with the eternal charity; this is the choice which was offered to the first-created man, and which is offered now to us. During the long centuries in which men were led step by step, slowly, and in the darkness, as on "the world's great altar-stairs," to the knowledge of God, the thought of the blessedness which they had forfeited, but which was not lost to them for ever, was kept up in many divine forms. They were led to think of the tree of life as still reserved in the Paradise of God, though as yet they were shut out from it, because they had made themselves unfit. When the narrative which told

them of it was brought before them, as we find it in the book of Genesis, they must have ceased almost, if not altogether, to think of it as still to be found in any earthly region. We read of no pilgrims going forth to seek it near the source of the Hiddekel or Euphrates. Whatever dreams may have haunted the hot fancies of a later age, hyperborean happiness in the far North beyond the frozen snows, islands of the blessed in the western ocean,-those who "look for another country, that is, a heavenly," for "a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God," must have looked there also, and nowhere else, for the Water and the Tree of Life.

CANON PLUMPTRE, M.A.

[To be continued.]

Germs of Thought.

Subject: The Holy War.

"And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious."-ISAIAH xi. 10.

YHATEVER may have been the original and direct meaning of these words and the whole of the predictions contained in this chapter, and however literally they may have been fulfilled in the history of the Jews in their triumphant return from Babylon, there can be no reasonable doubt but that they also referred to a greater and more glorious deliverance,- -even the deliverance of men from the bondage of Satan by the mediation and ministry of God's dear Son.

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When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, in the days of Herod the king, He was as a root out of a dry ground;" for the family of Jesse had sunk into obscurity, its glory seemed almost gone. However, the Saviour revived the splendour of the house of David; and, as David's Son and

Lord, He claimed to be the King of the Jews. He entered as an Ensign upon His crusade against the powers of darkness -He overcame—and His triumph was complete, and His rest glorious. Let us employ this suggestive military metaphor in a train of thought which we will endeavour to cast in a military mould. Our Lord, as an Ensign

I. MUSTERS HIS FORCES FOR THE BATTLE. Under the Old Testament dispensation, Jehovah revealed Himself as the Lord of Hosts-as a man of war; and God manifest in the flesh, was the Captain of Salvation, and set up His standard for men to rally around, that they might overcome sin without and sin within. As soldiers of the cross, we are to muster around our great Ensign, for discipline, drill, and for battle. The Royal proclamation has gone forth,-war has been declared against the powers of darkness, the trumpet of the Gospel has sounded, calling upon "all the world" and "every creature," to it the Gentiles have come, and the Church militant is going forth in this holy war. There is no neutral ground,-we must be for or against. Complete armour is provided, and the Ensign cries" to arms!" Our Lord, as an Ensign―

II. MARCHES WITH HIS FORCES TO THE BATTLE. He goes in front as leader and commander, to guide, stimulate, and cheer. The strength of His arm and the light of His eye are to act as inspiration to His troops. He goes before in His EXAMPLE. He fought with Satan, and He overcame the world. He conquered its frowns and smiles, and always went His way. "He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." He goes before us in PRECEPT. He has given us commandments how we shall march and how we shall fight; and He is ever present to give power to His word by the illumination and demonstration of His Holy Spirit. The early Christians were heroic and successful in battle, for they realized the presence of the great Ensign with them. We shall be strong and victorious in proportion as we realize the presence of Christ with us, and as we become Christly in our spirit and conduct. Our Lord, as an Ensign