Let them go by. It is not worth the Pain."^
IIL
The Kecovery of the Tses of Life.
Although, by reason of his transgression, man was driven out of Paradise, and debarred from access to the tree of life, he was not to be for ever excluded from the one or the other. Both are reserved in safe keeping until the time of the end, and in the restored Paradise the faithful shall " eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God " (Rev. ii 7), and " the leaves of the tree shall be for the healing of the nations" (Rev. xxii. 2).
1. Man la driven out of the garden where it stands, but immediately the education begins which, if he will submit to it, is to bring him back at last to the Paradise of God where the tree of life will be restored to him. And all the training that comes in between is of one sort. Everything from Genesis to Revelation has one purpose, — to teach man the hopelessness, the folly, the unsatisfactoriness, of a merely wilful and selfish life ; to bring men by every discipline of sorrow or joy to see the nobleness and fruitfulness of obedience and consecration. When that is learned, then the lost tree reappears. Hidden through all the lingering centuries, there it is, when man is ready for it, blooming in the Paradise of God.
2. If man is to take of the tree of life he can take of it only by facing the flaming sword which guards its place. If man is to eat of the produce of the ground he is no longer to eat it as it springs forth of itself, but thorns and thistles are
^ Rachel Anuand Taylor.
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springing out of the ground at the same time, and in the sweat of his brow he is to take the fair and necessary fruits of the earth. The fruits of the earth are no less desirable and necessary than before, but now they are to be taken under a new condition. The same is true of the tree of life ; it is still as desirable as ever. Man may still dream of the joy and the glory of partaking of that tree of life ; indeed he does so. If you turn to the other books of the Bible you will find that more than once the dream of that tree of life rises as a fair vision before the* eyes of man. When the wise man would speak of the highest benefit which can be conferred upon man, even the participation of the quality and the power of wisdom, he says, " She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her." The tree of life is as desirable for men as ever it was, but it can no longer be taken under the old conditions of ease. Now man must face danger in order to win it. Now it must be purchased at the risk of life. If man is to take the tree of life he must front the sword which turns every way to safeguard it from those who would approach.
*[f It is interesting and stimulating to observe how the Bible begins and ends with this figure of the tree of life. It has a prominent place in the first book, and it has a prominent place in the last book. And the whole of the intervening story, although the tree is not named, is one long commentary upon the text, one long dramatic exposition of the principle.
(1) You see the children of Israel led by the visible presence of Moses, and guided by the invisible hand of God, marching out of Egypt, and following a devious, perplexed, and harassed way through the wilderness towards Canaan. What are they doing ? They are marching up the path against the flaming sword and the cherubim that they may eat of the fruit of the tree of life.
(2) You see the minority in Israel who are faithful to Jehovah, sensitive to His dignity, loyal to His control ; a minority whose attitude, alike towards the sin of the people and towards the great national ideals and hopes, is expressed over and over again in the words of the prophets; you see them there, de- nouncing wickedness, protesting might and main against idolatry, suffering persecution ; in the time when enemies are threatening the nation with destruction, calling the people to repentance, summoning up their courage, leading them against the foe, steadying them on God, and amid disaster and catastrophe keeping the torch of hope aflame ; enduring all the pain and the shame of exile, and amid the allurements of foreign faiths and
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worship keeping firm their belief in Jehovah, and their hearts pure before Him, in order that still, even at the last hour, Israel may be preserved, and restored to its own ; and what are these doing ? They are pressing up against the sword and the cherubim that keep the way to the tree of life, that the nation may eat thereof and live.
(3) You see Jesus ; you follow His footsteps, and watch His way ; you see Him tempted in the Wilderness ; you see Him harassed and opposed by Scribes and Pharisees; you see the Herodians intriguing against Him; you see Him unrecognized and unsupported by His own people; you see Him laying upon His heart the sorrows and the burdens of the multitude ; you see Him patient under persecution, faithful to the truth against opposition, obedient to the Higher Will even unto death ; you see Him moving solitary and alone because of the miscon- ceptions and the misunderstandings of His followers; you see Him pass within the deep shadow of Gethsemane, and then, utterly forsaken, ascending the way of sorrow, bearing His cross to the place of death ; and what is He doing ? He is moving upwards against the flaming sword and the Cherubim that He may win to the tree of life; and this not for Himself aloue, but for us; that we might know how to come off conquerors, that we might know that there is a way to rise and to arrive, that we might have life in Him :