that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Is it not wonderful how many different ways have been held as essential to the obtaining of salvation? Yet we have it here in its perfection. Who obtain it? They who do the Lord's commandments. Simple, brief, and clear! Yet it has been said that no one can keep the commandments; and that, therefore, faith alone is the way to salvation. But the tree of life is the Lord our love. That is what we need; that is what we must receive. That is innocence, purity, bliss—the sum of all faith, hope and charity. That is salvation and eternal life. That is Eden, Beulah, Zion, the kingdom of heaven, the New Jerusalem. And the way to it is, doing the Lord's commandments.
This is only a repetition of the Lord's words, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." Paul had grasped the truth when he said, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." Eden was lost by breaking the commandments; it will be regained by keeping them. The cherubim guard the tree of life from the hands of the profane. The flame of the sword, or the self-love of man himself, protects it from the touch of sensualism by rendering it unappreciated and unknown. But it is gained again, and our right to it is re-established, by the persistent effort to
