The Old and New Paradise

“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”—Revelation xxii. 17.

In the beginning of the chapter from which these words are taken we read, “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.” Closely connected with this vision is one of the “tree of life which was on either side of the river, 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.”

Such passages, occurring in the last book of the Bible, could hardly fail to recall some that we were reading a week ago in the first. A Tree of Life was growing in the garden in which Adam and Eve walked; four Rivers are spoken of there, parted into four heads. The fancy of allegorists has been inexhaustible in following out these coincidences. “What Christian mysteries may not be shadowed forth by the Tree of Life! What deep lessons of wisdom may not lie hidden in the names of those early rivers to which this latest river so manifestly corresponds!”

It is impossible to say that devout persons have not gained some good from these speculations. We may hope that hereafter light will be thrown upon the cabalistical lore which ingenious men have suspected in all words and numbers and signs. But at present, life appears to be too busy and serious to leave us much leisure for such inquiries. No advantage or entertainment which can come out of them is a compensation for the impression which they make on a multitude of minds that the Bible is a book of tricks, not the book for practice and work. It is not too much to ask of pious people that they would discard the most innocent playthings if they tempt any to regard the words of Apostles and Prophets as intended for children rather than men.

I. But the likenesses in the language of the Book of Genesis and of the Book of the Apocalypse are too remarkable not to demand an explanation. If the allegorists offered an explanation, they would claim the most respectful attention. I suspect those have helped us most to the discovery of one, who have determined most resolutely that they would not be diverted by any temptations of the individual fancy from the study of the Bible as the interpretation of the deepest human wants, as the guide in the daily perplexities of human existence. They cannot open the Book of Genesis without finding an account of the Creation of Man in the Image of God. They read on, and hear of a man made out of the dust of the ground, into whose nostrils the breath of life was breathed, who became a living Soul. They hear of this man placed in a garden, amidst trees and rivers, learning to name the things about him, exercising a dominion over them, discovering his need of fellowship, provided with a helpmeet. A picture of existence surely very pleasing, one which bears evidence of truth in its simplicity, but not one which the least satisfies the idea which is set before us in the previous chapter. If that is true, an Arcadian, Paradisiacal existence is not that which a human being is to sigh for, or can be content with. If that is true, a solitary felicity, or the felicity of one pair of creatures, could never be the end contemplated in the divine Creation. Therefore, if we are told that the beautiful infancy of the race came speedily to an end—that the Woman was tempted by an inferior creature to crave for a forbidden thing that was good for the taste, and likely to make one wise,—that the Man disobeyed the command of his unseen Lord,—one hails the commencement, a sad commencement doubtless, but the only one we can imagine, of the actual history of mankind. A history, not—if the Bible is to be taken literally and in its order—of a downward, but of an upward progress; an education of men, through work, suffering, sin, to the discovery of their real capacities, of their divine parentage; a vindication of the truth of the original record, in spite of, and by means of, the profoundest unbelief and contradiction of it by those whose destiny and glory it proclaims.

If with this thought in our minds, which we gain from no mystical interpretations of Scripture, but by taking it as it stands, and throwing aside the conceits in which we have enveloped it, we compare the opening of Genesis with the last chapter of the Apocalypse, we feel indeed as if the Tree of Life and the Water of Life were useful and precious signs to connect the beginning of human discipline with the climax of it, to indicate the passage from the sensible life to the spiritual, from the solitary to the truly human. What must have been done between these two extremes? What has translated the rivers which are denoted by the presence of the bdellium and the gold and the onyx-stone, into a river that proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb? What has made a tree that grew in the midst of a garden wherein two people dwelt, into a tree the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations? What has converted a Garden into a City, a New Jerusalem, descending from Heaven as a bride adorned for her husband? Let us consider—

1. First. He who is described in that first record as the Creator of man, must have revealed Himself as a Father; the father not of a single living soul, but of a family. The command, increase and multiply, has been obeyed: it has not been a curse, it has been a blessing. That which has tried to turn it into a curse has been the desire of each member of the family to be divided from the rest, to be merely a separate soul. This desire has been the virtual denial of that name of Father. But the name has been a reality; the denial has been a lie. All may hold fast by the reality and renounce the lie, and those who deny their birthright are those whom the Father seeks to bring home.

2. Next. If that command had had time to fulfil itself, so had the threat, “Thou shalt die.” If Adam came under the power of death on the day that he ate of the tree, every one had been born under the same death. And each one had felt that death was in some way connected with the knowledge of evil. The sting of death was sin. But had there been also no knowledge of good all that time?—no perception of a life which was struggling with the death, or rather, against which the death was struggling? Had there been no one actually bruising the serpent’s head? Had not each mother, as a man was born into the world, been sure that there was? And who that was had been revealed. The seed of the woman, the object of trust, had actually come, not as the child of Eve, but as the head of the race, the Son of Man. His heel had been bruised. He had solved the mystery of death. He had changed it into a Sacrament of fellowship. He had risen out of it, declared to be the Son of God. The Word of Life is the substitute for the Tree of Life.

3. But, thirdly, a hint is given in the first chapter in Genesis concerning a Spirit who moved on the face of the waters. In the chapter we have read this afternoon, we hear of that Spirit striving with man. One of these intimations extinguishes all hard, mechanical notions of Creation. We cannot satisfy the description of it by saying that things were called into existence; this phrase imports the communication and unfolding of vital principles. The second expression is used of a human society, proud and rebellious, hurrying to destruction. It obliges us to remember that what resists destruction in man as well as in nature, is not a force without, but an energy within; that this energy holds together the social elements which are always ready to break loose; that this energy proceeds from God. Such language needed to be unfolded. It began to be unfolded by Christ as He sat by the well of Jacob, and spoke to the Samaritan woman of a water which He would give, that should be in her a well of water springing up to everlasting life. It was unfolded still more when at the Feast of Tabernacles He invited all who were celebrating the striking of the rock in the Wilderness, to come to Him and drink. But as St. John intimates in his comment on that sentence, it could not be completely unfolded till Christ was glorified. Then, when the Son of Man had been proclaimed as sitting on the right hand of God, the Spirit of God could be given to men, could come down upon different tribes and races to bind them into one, could take possession of their thoughts and their lips, could quicken their hearts with a new fire, could speak through their different dialects, could form a Church out of every kindred under Heaven, which should represent Humanity as redeemed of God, as the Bride of His Son. Such a preparation had there been for the words of my text. In those words the Spirit and the Bride are inviting men to partake of the water of life freely. Every part of their speech is addressed to one age as much as another. May it reach us!

II. 1. If by the Bride we understood the Church as represented by the doctors of some particular age, we might doubt greatly whether these voices could be in harmony. Often it seems as if Churchmen were bidding us seek some outward means of quenching our inward thirst. The words of our Lord respecting the well of water which is within, springing up to everlasting life, appear to frighten them; as if, though He spoke them, they were unreal and mystical; at least as if they must not be set before common people, though He addressed them to an ignorant and sinful woman. But the voice of the Church, as it sounds clear and strong through generations, in the confessions, prayers, songs, of those who bore witness that Christ verily died for man, verily exalted humanity to the right hand of God, that voice is an echo of the Spirit’s voice, which says: “Come within. Turn away from shows and appearances and glittering outsides. Come to Him who is the root and ground of thy being, the spring and source of all the life that is within thee. Leave the circumference about which thou mayest wander for ever, changing thy place and finding no rest, seeking thy home in new sects or churches, ever the prey of some new or old delusion, always learning, never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. Come to the centre from whence all the scattered lines of light which have reached these different sects and churches have radiated. Come to thy true home, thy Father’s house, from which thou hast gone forth in search of one elixir after another, till all has proved vain, and thou hast found sickness instead of perpetual health, and poverty instead of gold, and the food of swine instead of the nectar thou dreamest of. Come back to this home, in which thy spirit, after all its weariness and helplessness, will still find a welcome, and the new robe, and music and dancing, and the Father’s embrace.” So speaks the Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness and Truth, to the spirit that is in you and me. And the sacraments of the Church, which are the ring and vesture of the Bride, the pledges of our filial adoption, the assurances of our being bound to an eternal Husband, the witnesses of an inward and perpetually renewing life, these speak the same language. It is still, “Come: not to the end of the earth, not to some temporary covert from the heat or the rain, but to the house not made with hands, in which all human hearts may abide together.”

2. The Apostle goes on: “And let him that heareth say, Come.” The voice of the Spirit and the Bride may come to spirits that are closed against it; to those of whom Isaiah speaks, when he says, “They have made their hearts fat; and their ears are dull of hearing.” He does not mean that if a human instrument conveys the message, the sounds may not reach the man for whom it is intended. He does not mean that the words may make no impression upon that man’s understanding. He does not mean even that the import of them may not strike painfully upon his conscience. But he means that they are only regarded as some of the myriad voices which are ringing and buzzing in the air, not as the voice of a Deliverer and King. The invitation therefore is not obeyed; it is not felt to be an invitation. Or if it attracts, it is not recognized as having a right to command; we should like to accept it, but in fetters how can we? Still there may be an indistinct hearing, a half-conviction that the message is for us, and that God has sent it. Let him that heareth even thus say, “Come.” Let him say to his own heart: “Thou art tied and bound with some heavy chains, but this is surely the angel bidding thee arise and shake them off. It is not thou who must make great efforts to stand upright and be free. The Spirit of God will give thee power, will remove the hindrances. Only be sure that it is He who is speaking, and that thou hast only to submit to His guidance, to let Him purify thee and govern thee, and thou wilt be led in the straight way, if it is a rough way, to thy proper home.” All the weary metaphysics about necessity and freedom are contained in this sentence; but they are translated into life. The narrowness and hopelessness of the two party theories is avoided, the truth of each is confessed, and they sustain instead of contradicting each other. The Spirit of God comes to vindicate the freedom of man, not to crush it. When it ceases to be independent, and obeys its true ruler, its slavery ceases.

3. Still, “he that heareth” does not express the full Gospel which the Apostle is preaching. It contains the truth, but not the whole truth. A man may say, “You demand hearing of me; and the world has so dulled my organs, has so deafened me with its bewildering cries, that I cannot hear.” St. John adds, “And let him that is athirst say, Come.” At first you might think this was a greater requirement than the other. For a man to be athirst for the Water of Life, implies a high state of feeling, a kind of craving which is to be found in very few. If the expression were, “athirst for the Water of Life,” the criticism would be just. But it is simply “athirst.” The man may not know at all for what. He may have tried, and be trying still, a number of ways to satisfy the dry aching he finds in him. He may be conscious merely of that. Then let any one who is conscious of that say “Come.” Let him say, “I have sought the good that was to satisfy me, at a distance, and I have not found it. The faster I have pursued it, the faster it has fled from me. The Spirit and the Bride say that this could not be otherwise; for the good was close to me. I had it within me, and I did not know it. It was beneath myself, beneath all these dark and dreadful thoughts and visions respecting myself which were scaring me, and from which I am asking the world to deliver me. They say, ‘Come, and look through these; for if thy own dark self which thou dreadest to meet is there, Christ, who is the deliverance from thyself, in whom thou mayest sink and drown thyself, the true Lord and Friend of Man, is also there. Come, for if there is an Evil Spirit who asserts a dominion over thee, and seeks to fill thee with his own nature, there is one who casts out the Evil Spirit; there is the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, who has come from the bosom of the Father, from the Absolute, Eternal Love, and can lead thee into it.’”

4. There is another clause still, and at first it sounds like the one we have just considered, a discouraging one. “Whoso will, let him take of the Water of Life freely.” “So,” we exclaim, “it is come to this at last. At the threshold of the Bible we were reminded that there was this great obstacle, which existed in the very state of man, in the very gift of his Creator. In almost the last words of it the puzzle still remains unsolved. The will is still here; if that is obstinate, and it has the power of being obstinate, and for six thousand years it has proved and exerted its power, what then does all Redemption mean? What has been done to save the earth from its curse, which He who is made the ruler of it has a perpetual faculty to create and renew?” With this thought thousands who are not in earnest play as an excuse for their frivolity; it often torments for years some who are. And how can we answer it? We cannot answer it at all; but the Spirit and the Bride can. They answer it by speaking to the will—to the spirit that is in us. They make it feel that its capacity being wrong is its glory and not its curse. They awaken it to the effort and energy which belong to it, and which do not belong to any stone, or even to any tree or river or star. They make it feel that its efforts and struggles, even when they are feeble and ill-directed and working mischief, are still in themselves greater, and more dear to God, than all the unconscious movements of the Universe, though they may be calm and peaceful. They make the man understand that because they are dear to God, he does not leave them to work on turbulently to their own destruction; that the whole scheme of His providence and grace has been for the Redemption of this Will, for the bringing it out of the dominion of its oppressors, for the regeneration of it to be His servant and His child. They say to the man, “It is true that at the end of the Bible you still find, as you find at the beginning, that for a man to be blessed as a mere animal is blessed, is impossible by an Eternal Law which God will not set aside, which in Heaven and Earth and Hell He will confirm.” And that is the very explanation of the history of the Bible; and that is the explanation of the history of your existence and of every man’s existence. Because thou canst not be blessed as a mere animal is blessed, God would bless thee as a man is blessed.

5. And here is the blessing: “Take of the Water of Life freely.” You thought you were to purchase eternal life by a number of good acts, or by certain states of mind, or by a vigorous faith. You have found it very hard, nay, quite impossible, to bring the purchase-money. The acts you did were not good, they were selfish; the states of mind were not real, but artificial; the faith was in itself, not in God. Take of the Water of Life freely. Receive the eternal life which is the spring of all just works, good counsels, healthy faith. Receive it as God’s own gift, earned by nothing in you, sought for by you because He made you conscious of evil in your deeds and thoughts, of unbelief in your inmost heart. Take of it; let it enter into you, purify you, refresh you. Take of it afresh day by day, as the ground takes in fresh moisture day by day, as you and your children and your cattle drink at the well day by day. There need be no painful thirst in you, though there will be if you refuse this Water of Life. There will be always a healthful desire for more of that which you have found necessary, which has brought enjoyment. It is the life of God you are bidden to partake of, the highest, the eternal life. Yet it is a life we are to share with His poorest creatures, because it is the life of Him who gave His flesh and His blood for all. It is a life which cannot merely dwell in any one who possesses it. It must go forth, as God’s life goes forth, blessing and creating. The commonest symbol is used to denote it, that our sense of its wonder may not lead us to think it less general. These symbols belong to the completion of God’s work as much as to the beginning of it. The sensible thing has been all along seeking for the spiritual substance which lies beneath it. When that substance has been found, it retains its own worth and beauty. There is a new earth as well as a new heaven. The Jerusalem that comes down from above transfigures the elements of Nature, but destroys none of them. Nor does its own transcendent greatness make any previous condition of the race insignificant. In its brightness the garden age of the world acquires a new brightness, not one that deprives any that succeed it of their brightness. The boyhood of mankind, and its mature growth, has each its own nobleness, its own temptations, its own counterfeit. The Spirit that strove with men before the Deluge, has striven with them in every period since, is striving now against the tendencies of every family, every nation, every Church to become divided, heartless, base. The first Adam was made a living soul, and would have sunk his living soul in the mere appetites of the body and the enjoyments of sense, if God had not led him by toil and suffering to seek for a higher good, to seek for a Divine helper. The second Adam was made a quickening spirit, to renovate the human spirit, soul, and body, to bring all Creation out of its bondage into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. The dreams of a golden age, in the different nations of the earth which have not confessed a Son of Man, are beautiful, because they are witnesses that all have a sense of a better state which is meant for man, and from which his sins shut him out, though they throw that state back into the past. We who know it to be an eternal state, may interpret these dreams; we may not indulge in them. How can we lament the fall of Adam, if we believe it has led to the manifestation of the glory of God, and of His Kingdom over earth and over the spirits of men?