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LECTURE XIV.

THE RIVER OF LIFE.

"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."-Revelation xxii. 1.

ALL the imagery in this passage is extremely picturesque, as well as expressive. Earthly things are plainly shadows-not by accident, but by preadjustment and design-of the heavenly; and dim as they are since the introduction of sin, they afford us, notwithstanding, some faint idea of those bright and glorious things that lie folded up in the future, unseen and eternal. The Arabs have an old traditional belief, that there is a perpetual fountain in heaven, and that all who are permitted to drink of the waters of the river that flows from it, drink in the elements of immortality and perfect happiness. This tradition is a remnant of ancient truth. This river may be here employed to denote that full and ceaseless supply of spiritual life and joy and peace, which flows from the throne of God and the Lamb; or it may be the sacred symbol, in this as in other parts of Scripture, of that Holy Spirit who communicates every blessing of which the believer, in heaven or earth, is the recipient. This last idea is confirmed by a reference to Ps. xlvi., in which we read of a river whose "streams make glad the city of our God;" and again, in John vii. 37, "This spake he of the Spirit;" and perhaps the same great truth may be embodied in that beautiful promise, "They shall drink of the rivers of thy pleasure." The figure here employed is plainly fitted to suggest the idea of abundance. A cistern is limited in size, and is very soon exhausted of its waters; it receives all, and originates none; the largest fountain, however teeming, holds but little and may be emptied; but here there is set before us a deep, clear, and glorious stream, its fountain above the skies, rolling onward silently to the main.

In this dispensation we have springs and streamlets, their contents borrowed and easily exhausted; but in that dispensation we have access to the river itself. Past generations, of every clime and age, have drunk of it, and have been refreshed; and future generations will continue to drink of it too. Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Peter, Paul, and Polycarp, Augustine, the Waldenses and Paulicians, Luther, Knox, and Latimer, have all drunk of it, and derived from it refreshment and peace; and yet it rolls with undiminished flood, and countless myriads are welcome to drink of it, and sure to be satisfied from it, still. As light may be divided into its colours, this river may be divided into its component streams. These streams are named in Gal. v. 22, 23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;" and they deposit in their channels, as they run, far more precious things than the fabled sands of the ancient Pactolus.

This river, too, is perfectly "pure." Nothing in this dispensation is so. The trail of the serpent has polluted all: the purest gold has an alloy; the brightest iron contracts rust; the fairest landscape is not without defects; the loveliest flower has blight on it, and the ripest fruit is first insect-stung; and where all the exterior sparkles to the eye with glistening beauty, we have only to penetrate within, and we shall find quicksand upon quicksand, and depth after depth,-in one word, "the heart of man deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." In these waters, however, these is no mixture of uncleanness of any kind. The pure channel pours along a pure current, and the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem drink of its unadulterated waters, which are lit up as they run with the glory that shines from between the cherubim. Neither Abana, nor Pharpar, nor the Tiber, nor the Isis, pour into its flood one drop of their tainted waters. These celestial streams retain through endless generations their aboriginal excellence, and remain pure as their fountain, perennial as the throne.

This stream is also described as being "clear as crystal;" a characteristic perfectly distinct from that on which we have just been speaking. Purity denotes its substance-clearness, its appearance. It is on the bosom of this river that we behold, as in

a glass, the glory of the Lord. Milton admits this mirror-use of a river here referred to, when he describes Eve looking at herself in the crystalline streams of Paradise

I laid me down

On the green bank, to look into the clear
Smooth lake, that to me seem'd another sky.
As I bent down to look, just opposite,

A shape within the watery gleam appear'd,
Bending to look at me: I started back;

It started back; but pleased, I soon return'd;
Pleased, it return'd as soon; with answering look
Of sympathy and love.

This river, which broke forth so fair and beautiful in Paradise, now runs often underground, and is shaded and darkened by the existing scenes through which it flows. But in the New Jerusalem it will break forth from the Rock of ages in more than its pristine beauty and purity, and rush along like molten silver, evermore reflecting from its bosom "mercy and truth that have met together, and righteousness and peace that have kissed each other," once more the perfect mirror of a holy God and a perfect universe.

It is also called the "water of life." Life is the great characteristic of that state-a life of holiness, and happiness, and joy. There will be none of the dead: all things will live; a living people, a living glory, a living home, a living God. Its tree is the tree of life, its river is the river of life, its book is the book of life; and this river bears upon its bosom downward from the throne, all that can make life happy and keep it so without end. No frosts shall bind it with their chain, no sultry suns shall deprive it of its freshness, and every soul upon its banks shall sustain his immortal and happy life by drinking of it perpetually.

We see from this passage that the Father and the Son have but one throne: the river is said to proceed from the throne "of God and of the Lamb." Our Lord himself says, "I am set down with my Father on his throne." The first and second persons in the Godhead have thus coequal and coeternal dignity and glory. The evidence of the deity of Jesus is strong as that of the existence of God. Our nature, too, is seated on the throne, as a

first-fruit and earnest of what shall be; having been carried from the grave wherein sin had laid it, to such dignity and glory and perfection, by our Head and Representative. It is interesting also to observe that He who sits with the Father on the throne is designated there by the same epithet, bearing which he suffered here" the Lamb." And so he will remain for ever. In his designation he is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." In his manifestation, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." In his humiliation, "he was led as a lamb to the slaughter;" and in his exaltation, the character that clave to him so closely in the past will not be renounced by him at any time in the future, for he is still "the Lamb on the throne." It will also be perceived here, that the river, or the Spirit of God, as we have already shown, proceeds from the Father and the Son: "All things that the Father hath are mine;""Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." The language of this Apocalyptic text has for its parallel the evangelical promise in John xiv. 26: "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." And also in John xvi. 7: "I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." This river, therefore, in this its glorious procession, reveals at once the will of the Father and the work of the Son. We also learn from this passage, that the Holy Spirit is the gift of the enthroned Lamb. It is thus we read, "The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified." The gift of the Spirit is a royal act; this river is a royal river, its gift is one of Christ's crowns: if he had not been crucified, no Spirit could have been promised; if he were not throned, no Spirit could be actually given. It is a stream from this river that we now need; for though Christ be manifested love and fulness of light, yet so opposed are we to all that is holy, pure, and good, that we are still ready to exclaim, "Not this man, but Barabbas." But when the Holy Spirit "takes of the things that are Christ's, and shows them unto us," we then see and appreciate their excellence. In

this dispensation the Spirit excites a new character within us; in the coming dispensation, he will sustain that character.

We see in this Apocalyptic portrait the harmony and unity of the whole Trinity. The Father is here represented as the fountain-head of all love, and life, and happiness; the Son, as the golden channel through which all must flow; and the Spirit, as the river of life that rolls down that channel from the throne. God the Father is set before us as sovereign love, God the Son as redeeming love, and God the Holy Spirit as sanctifying and efficacious love and thus we see that every blessing upon earth is a Trinity blessing. Pardon is sovereign from the Father, is purchased by the Lamb, is sealed and sent by the Spirit. There are three that bear record in heaven-the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and all Christianity is but the manifestation of a Triune Jehovah.

If God be nothing more than one, a child can compass the thought;
But seraphs fail to unravel the wondrous unity of three.
One verily He is, for there can be but One who is Almighty;
Yet the oracles of nature and religion proclaim Him three in one.
And where were the value to thy soul, O miserable denizen of earth!
Of the idle pageant of the cross, where hung no sacrifice for thee?
Where the worth to thine impotent head of that storied Bethesda,
All numbed and palsied as it is by the scorpion stings of sin?
No; thy trinity of nature, enchained by treble death,

Helplessly craveth of its God Himself for three salvations:

The soul to be reconciled in love, the mind to be glorified in light,
While the poor dying body leapeth into life.

And if, indeed, for us all the costly ransom hath been paid,

Bethink thee, could less than Deity have owned so vast a treasure?

Could a man contend with God, and stand against the bosses of His buckler, Rendering the balance for guilt, atonement to the uttermost?

That this great truth, a Triune Jehovah, is shrouded in mystery, no one can deny. But surely we do not profess to disbelieve a fact-a phenomenon- —an occurrence in the world, all the sides of which we cannot see at once. Even so we should here be humble in our ignorance, and lean on the truth we cannot comprehend, and glory in Him whose greatness is incomprehensible.

We learn from this passage the stability and permanence of millennial blessings. This river shall only cease to run when