Christ abdicates his throne, but "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever" earthly kings are forsaken of their subjects-their thrones melt away beneath them—and dignities, and ranks, and titles disappear like snow-flakes on the tempestuous torrents of revolution; but this throne is not convulsed by the agitations of earth; it controls all, and is controlled by none; it is far above the tide-mark. God is an everlasting king, and his kingdom a kingdom that cannot be moved.

It is by this river we rise to and reach the fountain. The Spirit will be the Great Teacher then as now; the persons of the glorious Trinity will never abdicate their functions; and therefore we may expect that the Spirit will ever open up to our minds new and glorious mysteries, and ever extend to the focus of our vision with the enlargement of our horizon. We shall depend on Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as much and as truly in the future as in time past. Glorified creatures will be creatures still; dependency will be then, as now, our element, even as independence is now felt to be a curse and a calamity, just in the ratio of its attainment.

The blessings and glories of the millennial kingdom will come to us through Christ. The Lamb will still be the key-note of our harmony, the burden of our gratitude, the medium of our joys, the connecting link between a holy God and a happy universe: it will be true then, as it is true now: "No man cometh unto the Father but by me."

The highest honour conferred on a subject in ancient times, was to be allowed to eat at the king's table: thus David refers to this practice in 1 Sam. xx. We shall be children enjoying the hospitality of our heavenly Father-we shall be subjects seated. at the table of the King of kings, glorious in his glory.

We learn from this passage, that the whole Trinity will be then, as now, communicative: the river proceeds from the throne of God and of the Lamb. All the joys of those around that throne, as well as those tasted by us who serve at his footstool, are the efflux of Triune love. To give, is the joy of Deity; selfish monopoly is the canker, as it is the curse of man. Hence it is written, "It is more blessed to give than to receive:" for thus we act more godlike. Man's greatest enjoyment is not merely benevo

lence, but beneficence: the joy of the universe is realized in ministry; he is greatest of all, who is servant of all, and the deepest happiness surrounds sacrifice as with a halo.

Let us see in this passage the unity of the church of Christ, both now and then. This river, like a sparkling chain, connects in one all its parts; it refreshes, first, the saints in glory, and, next, the saints on earth. One drinks where there is no intermingling taint, and the other where all around is imperfect and impure.

Your departed infants, and your parents who have preceded you, and are now within the vail, drink of the same living stream that you drink of, only a little higher up and nearer the fountamid greater light and less shadow. And in this vision we see also the real and only element of true unity and union among believers upon earth. It is not uniformity of size or thought, but unity of faith, of sentiment, of joy, of life, of hope. Uniformity exists in the lower creation, unity in diversity of development in the higher. There is uniformity in a street with continuous brick buildings all of one shape and size; there is unity in the varied architecture of Bruges or Antwerp. It is one spirit that makes one body. It is the pervading vitality of the Spirit of God that creates relationship, and makes of twain one. It is the spirit of adoption that makes us sons. It is drinking of this river that makes Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian one. In the absence of this grand element, all outward colouring, all obligation of ritual, rubric, liturgy, and ecclesiastical government, are but masks concealing internal antagonisms, diversities, and disputes. The most splendid forms are hollow hypocrisies, or the trappings of death, in the absence of this throne-river. A stream from it will make the most rugged external forms and ordinances fair and beautiful.

Let us learn, in the next place, what constitutes a Christian's happiness it will be nothing in the Millennium but what is known now it will be different in degree, but the same in kind. The fountain is the same. Its waters they are that flow around the footstool, and make glad the tabernacles of the city of our God. Our entrance into the immediate presence of God is not a

total change of element, but only an entrance from one degree into a higher.

Let us learn, in the next place, that the true end of a visible church, in all its ordinances, is to convey this living water to the souls of its people. It should be written upon its very lintels and doorposts, "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of our God;" and its ministers should stand and perpetually cry, "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters;" and they alone who drink of this water below, shall drink of it above. "He that believeth on the Son HATH everlasting life." The fellowship that will last for ever, is a fellowship begun below. We have the earnest now of what we shall be. Do we feel the necessity of the presence and power of this Divine Teacher? Do we wait on a ministry that glorifies the Spirit? Do we place ourselves amid the means that derive all their efficacy from Him? Do we ever pray Him to come from the four winds and breathe on us? Were there more of fervent prayer among the hearers, and more spiritual preaching among ministers, there would be fuller and more frequent real revivals of true religion. Revelation is complete, but religion is only in its infancy. The first was finished when the Apocalypse was written; and the latter will make progress, "not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Do we defer to that Spirit, and sacredly follow his monitions? He speaks to us from the depths of conscience, from the pages of the Bible, from the sanctuary, from revolution, affliction, the sick-bed, the grave, from every point of the compass: "If any man thirst, let him come and take of the water of life freely."

In all parts of the year in which we live, are heard voices and thunderings premonitory of that vast spiritual revolution which is at our doors. The chaos is now rolling and fermenting on the eve of a new genesis. Nature (as natura means) groans and travails, about to come to the birth. Blessed be God, that we know that, while all things disintegrated and disorganized are dashed against each other by the tempest that beats upon them, the Rock of ages remains.

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LECTURE XV.

THE TREE OF LIFE.

"In the midst of the street of it, 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; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."— Revelation xxii. 2.

THE first mention of the tree of life in the word of God occurs in Gen. ii. 2: "Out of the ground the Lord made every tree to grow that was pleasant to the sight and good for food: the tree of life also in the midst of the garden." Its use, in the unfallen and sinless world, is also subsequently described, or rather implied, in these words: "Lest he put forth his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth." We read also, that the cherubim and the flaming sword were appointed "to keep the way of the tree of life." Thus things continued, as far as we can ascertain, till the deluge. Man was kept within sight of Eden, and the flaming cherubim, and the tree of life, visible to all that looked, as if to teach him, that having lost the original righteousness which entitled him in his unfallen condition to gather the fruit of that glorious tree, he must now be provided with a righteousness at least as perfect as that which he had lost, before his access could be restored, and thus only could he recover the condition of joy, and freedom, and life which was forfeited.

The second paradise, we are sure is the counterpart of the first, only fairer and more beautiful by far; the second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven, and his ransomed and spotless bride, shall re-enter and dwell in that predicted and nearing paradise, in which blight, and death, and decay, shall be strangers for ever. The tree in the midst of it shall not be the monopoly of a few,

but the privilege and possession of all-the sacrament of our immortality-the symbol of our dependence the evidence of our creatureship, and the testimony to a witnessing and surrounding universe, that God alone is the fountain of all being, the source of all happiness, and that on Him the universe depends. The word translated "the tree of life," is literally "a word of life" the word is úlov, and seems to be associated in Scripture with the cross of Christ, for it is the same word which is used in Acts v. 30, "whom ye slew and hanged on a tree;" and also in 1 Pet. ii. 24, "He bare our sins in his own body on a tree." May not this Apocalyptic symbol convey to us some grand exhibition of the great doctrine of the atonement, as the standing characteristic of the age to come-the prominent and central thing in the midst of it? May it not mean that the atonement shall be, and be seen to be, in heaven, what it has been felt to be by believers on earth, the source of all spiritual life? Thus the instrument of death becomes the source of life-the emblem of shame, that of honour and Paul may sing in glory, what he so heroically proclaims in grace-"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

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The fruit of this tree is declared to be produced every month. The trees of the earth at present bear fruit once a year; this tree shall bear its fruit once a month. This remarkable characteristic may perhaps denote the infinite and unceasing abundance of all that is good and happy, which shall be realized in the New Jerusalem by the people of God, and the utter absence of all the effects and influences of vicissitude, of season, and clime, and change, which are so destructive in this world. Certainly there will be enough of the elements of life and happiness for the 144,000, the Apocalyptic symbol of the redeemed-the bride of the Lamb. It is for this consecrated band that it bears its fruit; it is for them the cross was raised on earth; and it is for their sakes and use that it shall be transferred to glory, and shine there in richer lustre. This tree will not, indeed, give life, but it will perpetuate it; it will not create life, but it will maintain it.