If, then, love is an implantation of the Lord's own spirit within the heart—true love, I mean—we see what a glorious tree of life it is as it takes root in the ground of the spirit, growls in vigor and expands in strength, until the whole life feeds upon its fruit and nourishes itself with its invigorating juices. For "out of the ground," it is said, made the Lord God to grow these trees; and out of the ground of man's spirit is it, that the tree of life and its opposite spring forth.
It is noteworthy that this tree of life whereof the Apostle John wrote to the Ephesian Church, and of which it is declared that he who overcometh shall eat, is said to be "in the midst of the Paradise of God." Paradise is Eden. In the midst of Paradise, is in the center of the heart. Observe, it is not spoken of here as a matter of the past—not as a thing of six thousand years ago—but is predicated of the present and future. The Ephesians were after Christ's time. Had Eden been a locality of earliest geography, no Ephesian could ever have been there. Literally viewed, Eden has gone into oblivion forever; it is obliterated from the face of the earth; and the tree of life exists no more. But Eden, or the tree of life in its midst, was promised to an Asiatic Church. Eden is in every heart that overcometh; and he that overcometh, to-day and forever, is in Paradise, the Eden of
