Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/150

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
144
The Garden of Eden.

be spiritual in its character. It is not visible to outward sight; it comes to us within. And the New Jerusalem is but another term for Eden. It is a new dispensation of light and love. It is the doctrine of Eden retaught and the life of Eden restored. If we cannot see this by intuition, there is one fact which shows it clearly; it is that the peculiarities of Eden reappear in the New Jerusalem. When John in vision looked up, he saw a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Natural rivers do not proceed from visible thrones; they well up from hidden fountains in the earth. This, therefore, is the same river under a different name, which went forth in Eden. It is the same water of which our Lord spake when He said to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well: "Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." That was the new truth of the Gospel which, inwardly received, would be a well of spiritual wisdom that would so turn the current of the thoughts, affections and desires, as to prove a fount of everlasting life to whomsoever should drink it.

Such is the water that comes from above. It is spiritual truth. Such was the water that flowed from Eden. Such is that which in the New