the very life of the heart. Eden is the state of peace, innocence and joy with which the soul is suffused, and which it carries with it in all the circumstances and vicissitudes of life, in all its labors and burdens, in all its duties and amusements. But the tree of life is that love as the fountain within the heart whence spring the spirit of goodness and purity of motive which give the life this state and tone.
The tree of life! Love to God! Let us understand this fully. Is not the Lord as a sun to the spirit? Does not the Scripture tell us this distinctly? Flows He not in with an influence on mind and heart, with the spirit of understanding and the warmth of love, in a manner similar to that in which the natural sun operates upon the earth with his light and heat? Do we not speak of the light of truth and the warmth of love as real things? Yea, the Lord, as the central Sun of the world of spirit and mind, flows in with his light into the understanding and with his love into the will. Then when it is said, "The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory," we cling to the sentiment in no merely metaphorical sense; we recognize the unseen Divinity as the fountain whence pour, as real things, the grace of love into the heart and the glory of spiritual wisdom into the understanding.
C
