h his hand" as he passes, "and take ... and
eat, and live for ever." (Gen. iii. 22.) Or, "the people that are
therein" may "sit down under its shadow, and its fruit will be sweet to
their taste."--"The leaves of the tree" are for medicine, being
preventive of all disease, so that "the inhabitant shall not say, I am
sick: the people that dwell therein are forgiven their iniquities." (Is.
xxxiii. 24.) "There shall be no more curse." Satan gained entrance into
the garden of Eden, and succeeded in entailing the "curse" upon man, and
upon beast, and upon the fruits of the ground; but he shall never be
loosed again, or emerge from "the lake of fire," to disturb the repose
of that blessed society in heaven, (ch. xxi. 27.)--As the "throne of God
and the Lamb" is _one,_ (ch. iii. 21;) so it is remarkable that the
distinction of persons is omitted, as though the Father and the Son were
but one person. True, Christ said, "I and my Father are one," (John x.
30;) but he referred to _unity_ of _nature_ and purpose, not of
_personality;_ for, in consistency with this, he said also,--"My Father
is greater than I;" an assertion which must consist with the former, and
which plainly involves personal distinction, (ch. xiv. 28.)--"His name
shall be in their foreheads."--Which of them? We have found Christ's
Father's name "written in the foreheads" of a hundred and forty-four
thousand saints _militant_, (ch. xiv. 1.) While in conflict, "the world
knew them not," and the adherents of Antichrist "cast out their names as
evil," branding them as _heretics_; but now they are known to the whole
universe, as the _covenant property_ of both the Father and the Son,
(ch. iii. 12.)--"Behold, I and the children which God hath given me;"
(Heb. ii. 13.) "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me cut of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me;
and they have kept thy word. ... All mine are thine, and thine are mine;
and I am glorified in them." (John xvii. 6,10.)--There will be no
intermission or interruption of service, "no night there,"--no hidings
of God's countenance, no desertions; for "they shall see his face" in
the "express image of the Father's person," be assured of his
love;--"need no candle," nor any earthly accommodation; "for the Lord
God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever," in
fulness of joy and unalloyed pleasures for evermore. (Ps. xvi. 11.) How
different is this heaven from the Mahometan