INTRODUCTION.

BY REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D.

THERE is no little theology, as well as history, abiding by the sacred rivers; whoever will trace them with care may be a very learned man; and he who will drink of them, whenever he can, will be a man of life, as well as learning.

The first river went out of Eden; it was the river of Paradise, lost now, and as untraceable as the entrance to the garden. The last river brings us to God and the New Jerusalem; it is the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb. But the first river, like the first man, was of the earth earthy; the last river, like the second man, is the Lord from heaven.

But there is an intermediate river, the foretaste of the last, as the earnest of the Spirit is the foretaste of the heavenly inheritance. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. Divine Truth and Grace constitute that river for the healing of the nations. That was Ezekiel's vision of the holy waters, issuing from the Sanctuary. The angel shall take you by the hand, and bring you through them, and at first they shall only be up

to the ankles. A thousand cubits more of heavenly experience shall be measured to you, and still they shall be only up to your knees. A thousand more shall be measured, and the angel shall bring you through, and still they shall be only up to the loins. But a thousand more, and it shall be a river that you cannot pass over; "for the waters are risen, waters to swim in, that cannot be passed over." Hast thou seen this?

Behold, at the bank of the river are many trees, on the one side and on the other. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth and moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live. And by the river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit, according to his months, because their waters issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

Hast thou seen this? A man must come to Ezekiel's river in this world, and know from experience something of what is there taught by the Divine Spirit, if he would ever walk with angels beside the river of the water of life in glory, and have a right to the Tree of Life, to enter in through the gates into the city. He must take that leaf which is for medicine here, those waters which are for healing here, if he would eat of the fruit of that Tree which is Life, if he would drink of that crystal stream which is in heaven. There is health there, but no healing; life there, but no disease; a fountain of life, but no medicine. The time for medicine is here, the need of it is here, the use of it

must be here; but only the result of it is there, in Life Everlasting. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.

Thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy pleasures. This is spoken of those who put their trust under the shadow of God's wings. And it is said of a man having this trust, that he shall not only be as a tree planted by the river, with leaves always green, and never ceasing to yield fruit, but that he shall be himself as a river of water in a dry place. He shall make others green, and whatever he doeth shall prosper. When the church of Christ, everywhere, is made up of such men, there will be no more dry places. Such men are as Artesian wells in the desert.

Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the fountain of life. It is an argument from the river to the fountain. They that drink of the river here, shall come to the fountain hereafter. They that drink of the river here, are never satisfied till they rise to the fountain. As the hart panteth after the water-brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God! When shall I come and appear before God! There is this paradox connected with this truth, that the deeper experience a man has of this heavenly thirst, the happier he is, and yet the more unsatisfied. And the more unsatisfied, the nearer he is to the fountain. There are different kinds of unrest; the unrest of the sinner and that of the holy soul, like a dove. Each of them proves two different antagonistic worlds, fountain-worlds, eternal. Who among us, says the one, shall dwell with everlasting burnings? But there, says the

;

other, the glorious Lord will be to us a place of broad rivers and streams. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. When this imagery from the Old Testament reappears in the New, it is as a stream that has flowed underground from one continent, and risen in another. Here still it is the river of Faith, but there is a transfiguration of it into still greater glory in Christ. The glorious Lord, who was to be the place of rivers, stands in human form, and says, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He sits by Jacob's well, and says, Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh 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.

In the New Testament we are nearer the Great Fountain, than in the Old. Here 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 the water of life freely. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his soul shall flow rivers of living

water.

"When a man turns to the Lord," said one of the antique Jewish writers, "he is like a fountain filled with living water, and rivers flow from him to men of all nations and tribes." We want many such fountain-men, men of deep, original experience in the grace of faith; men whose life is the fruit of the Spirit. We want believing men, men that can say of all God's antagonists, as Joshua and Caleb said of the giants of Canaan, They be bread for us.

We want

a life of faith, wherewith our peace shall be like a river, and our righteousness in Christ like the waves of the sea.

This river-experience, which is at our own choice, being placed at our own disposal, as God's free gift in Christ Jesus, if we will have it, is what we need, to prepare us for the experience of another river, which cannot be avoided, which is neither chosen, nor desirable, and yet inevitable.

For between us and the City of God, the New Jerusalem, lies the river of Death; and every human being must go down into it. Its waters are cold, icy-cold; and a cloud and thick gloom hang over it, which only the eye of Faith can penetrate. Downward and upward are the exits from it; downward beneath the gloom, into deeper gloom, and darker waters, or upward from it, and above it, into light, joy, and glory. He that has taken a draught at the river of the water of life, this side the stream of death, shall pass safely over it. HE SHALL NEVER SEE DEATH. It was the word of our Lord, Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die.

He shall pass from grace to grace, from life to life, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Where that experience is going on, and just in proportion as it deepens, Death is swallowed up in Victory. The River of Death, that looked so broad and deep, so dark and terrible, appears oftentimes, when the feet of the Pilgrims press its margin, as an insignificant rill, and on the other side, the land of glory shining, with multitudes of friendly angels waiting. Sometimes the Pilgrims seem to go over dry-shod; for step after step, as faith advances, the tide retreats and separates. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee;