December 9

The Tree of life.—Revelation 22:2.

THIS tree of life is none other than Jesus, the far famed plant of renown. He is often compared by the sacred writers to a tree, and he spake of himself as being the true vine, and his Father as the husbandman. But he is emphatically the tree of life. There is no life which he has not communicated; he is the life both of earth and heaven. But he is so especially to the dying sinner. By reason of transgressing the Divine command, and eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin and death entered our world. Jesus as the tree of life, is the grand remedy, and only antidote. His leaves were for the healing of the nations, and his fruit is for the nourishment and delight of his people through all generations. Tasting of this tree they first begin to live, and by feeding upon it, life is supported and perpetuated. The fruit of the tree is abundant and various. It bears twelve sorts of fruit, or in other words, a perfection of sorts, which are suited to all the need of God's people. What totally annihilates all their wants, and fills them with all the good they can possibly need. Not only do we live by the fruit of this tree on earth, but it is also the food of glorified saints in heaven. Under its shady boughs, the inhabitants of the celestial paradise shall sit with great delight. Its fragrance shall fill the heavenly fields with the richest odours, the very air shall be impregnated with its perfumes, and be fraught with the balm of immortality and eternal life. Jesus the tree of life, is in the midst of the heavenly paradise, equally accessible on every side, from every quarter, and to all its redeemed inhabitants.

" In midst of Eden's sacred fields, The tree of life its fragrance yields; And spreads its laden boughs around. Where fruit of every kind is found."