The tree of life was in the midst of the river also. This is a curious expression from a natural point of view, but a beautiful one spiritually considered; for it indicates that the Lord as love, is not only the central principle in the mind, and consequently in the path of life, of all the dwellers in the New Jerusalem, but that He is the central point (in the midst or center) of all their spiritual wisdom. The river of water of life, is the wisdom of life made manifest to the mind as it flows into the understanding from the Lord; and God and the Lamb—the invisible Divinity and the Divine Humanity—are the center of it. It all comes from the Lord—the glorified Christ; it all looks to Him; it regards Him in every turning of the thought. All principles, all truths, are Sowings forth from Him, and bear his image and superscription. The mind which, in all its meditations, never loses sight of the Lord as its central light and warmth, is the one in the midst of whose river of water of life, as it proceeds from the throne of God, the tree of life forever stands.
And it is "on this side and on that." It is to the right and the left; in heavenly considerations and earthly; in states of light and in those of obscurity; at church and at work. Under all circumstances the tree of life is before the eyes, forming a part of every thought, entering into every motive, guiding in every act. "Guiding,"
