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 the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it,-Revelation xxii: 1-2.

N the Atlantic ocean there is a river. In the raging and destructive flood it does not overflow its banks, and in the severest drouth there is no lack of water. Its bed and its banks are cold, while its own current is warm. It is the most marvelous and majestic stream of water in the world. Hundreds of miles from its source it is indigo blue, with a marked and sharp contrast between it and the green waters of the ocean which form its liquid banks, and without apparent affinity between them. It is swifter in its course than the Mississippi or the Amazon, and the volume of water which flows in its bed is three thousand times as great. It is known as the Gulf Stream. Its source is the Gulf of Mexico. Its course is northward, along the American coast to Newfoundland. Here it turns eastward, passes the Azores and divides, the one branch moving northward along the European coast and by the British Isles, spreads its mantle of warmth over the NorthAtlantic, and empties at last into the Arctic Sea. The other branch, moving southward down by the Straits of Gibralter and the coast of Africa, joins the Equatorial current and flows back across the ocean to its source in the Gulf. Its entire length is more than twelve thousand miles. Other features of this

majestic stream may not here pass without our notice. It catches up the palms and bamboos of Hayti and Cuba, the rosewood and mahogany of Honduras and Nicaragua, the rare and valuable woods from off the banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco, and bears them on its current to the coast of Norway, where the Arctic fishermen gather them up and burn them on their hearths. Who, too, does not know of the benign influence of this stream as it takes the heat from the Gulf and carries it northward and eastward to temper with its genial influence the climates of western Europe and the British Isles; how it leaves the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, bound fast in icy fetters, and moving eastward, and northward too, with its dewy smile makes Ireland the Emerald Isle of the sea and clothes the shores of old Albion with robes of richest evergreen. In wonder and majesty this ocean river stands unparalleled by anything of which the world has record, or of which men have known or read, save alone that stream of which Ezekiel speaks, and which John saw in vision while on the Isle of Patmos:-" 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, in the midst of the street thereof."

I invite you to step out with me a little while today, and, following the trend of the Apostle's vision, grasp a thought or two here made prominent. Revelation closes with a view of the new Celestial earth, the greatest glory of which is its central metropolis, the New Jerusalem. The city where God and the Lamb forever dwell. In its completeness it has come

down from God out of heaven. It is built of material the most costly and glorious of which human thought can conceive. It appears in its bridal loveliness and heavenly splendor. Sin and evil of every character, all that can hurt or annoy, all that offends or is offensive are carefully excluded. Pain there, too, is at an end, for immortal youth and health are secured. Grief and sorrow are done away, for God has wiped away all tears from the eyes of the saints. The light of the city is such, too, that the eye of flesh may not look upon it. It is not the lamp or the electric jet. It is not the stars or the soft mellow radiance of the moon at her full. It is not the morning twilight, promising and beautiful in its advance today, or the noonday sun in its blazing glory. It is not the splendor of sunset, which floods the sky with silver and gray and crimson and gold; -not these indeed. It is rather akin to that light which burst upon your soul when God spake your sins forgiven and called you His child. The glory of God lightens that city and the Lamb is the light of it.

Yonder, from the throne of God, flows a river. It is radiant with glory. It is bright and clear and sparkling, as the diamond when the light of the sun shines upon it. On this side and on that side, its banks are lined with dense, lovely foliage and of the richest fruitage, to which come men of every clime, the nations of the saved, with their glory and honor. It rolls on amid the palaces of God, the mansions of the redeemed and the glorified saints, who move amid the peace and blessedness and holy rapture, and abide by its silvery strands. It finds its way to earth even, and gladdens a new creation.