(Genesis 2 and 3.)

The very word "Eden" suggests how lovely and delightful must have been this fair creation when first it came from the hand of God. And, as Gen. 2:8 tells us, in this fair spot the Lord God planted a garden, to be the abode of the lord of creation and his bride-a garden in the midst of a creation which itself is called "Delight." Does it not suggest to us that our God has prepared a place of special beauty and delight for Christ and His Bride in the midst of the fair creation that shall be, when He and His Bride shall reign for ever and ever in the new heaven and the new earth?

How much, however, has come in between Gen. 2 and Rev. 22! How much of shame and sorrow for man! How much, too, for our Lord ere the blessed prospect of the New Paradise could become a happy reality.

The Lord God put the tree of life in the midst of the garden; in which was also the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is not said that man had been forbidden to eat of the tree of life, but he was told not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day he ate thereof he would surely die. It was, thereof, the tree of death. Life and death are here set before man, and God is saying, as it were, like Moses in Deut. 30:19, "I have set before you life and death.. .therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." The tree of life was there for them; they might eat of it and live. It was set in the midst, the central attraction of that fair scene; yet neither Adam or Eve ever ate of it (Gen. 3:22). And, like them, we too for many years ignored or despised the tree of life and-solemn thought-chose death.

On the contrary, though forbidden to eat of the tree of death, in ch. 3 we find the woman at its foot. Whether or not in the midst of the garden, it was in the midst of her thoughts, and probably had been so since the moment she had heard from Adam's lips the divine command to leave its fruit alone. Satan, the father of lies, said "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." How solemn that this should or could be a temptation to Eve. "All you will gain," suggests Satan, "by disobeying God, will be the knowledge of evil," for she already had the knowledge and enjoyment of good. All that men gain in their disobedience of God is evil-sin, with all its awful appendages, all its temporal and eternal consequences. Yet how attractive sin looks! The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired to make one wise. But are not those very things said of all the trees (ch. 2:9)? And were they not true also of the tree of life? Nay, they were more true of the tree of life, for:

"O cross of Christ! O glorious tree!
What place can be compared with thee?"

Now let us look at another scene(Matt. 27:36-44). Again we see a garden, and One there gazing, like Eve, on the tree of knowledge of good and evil-the tree of death. Not indeed tempted to eat thereof, as she was, by Satan; but led there by God the Father."They went both of them together" (Gen. 22:8). Eve had this tree in the center of her thoughts from the moment she heard the divine prohibition; but long before that time (1 Pet. 1:19, 20)the Eternal Son had before Him that awful tree of death which here He views in all its unutterable terribleness. Eve knew only good until by disobedience she learned what evil was. And our blessed Lord knew only good, as from all eternity He was the delight of the Father, and the Adored of all created beings, until He too learned, not by disobedience but by obedience, even unto death, what evil was. With bated breath, in adoring wonder, we see our Lord here in the garden, at the foot of the tree of death; looking, like Eve, on the tree whose fruit He is so soon to taste. Eve saw the tree to be good for food. But listen to the Sufferer in Gethsemane as He looks on the tree, as the awful pressure of anguish forces the blood in great sweat-drops from His holy brow:"My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless, not as I will but as Thou wilt. O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me except I drink it, Thy will be done." There are not two trees here. Man's awful choice in Eden had left but the one tree for Him, the tree of death. The Holy One is about to taste what sin in all its awful horror has wrought. Good for food to Eve; to Him it is the bitterness of death, which He tastes for us. Pleasant to the eyes it was to her; who will ever know what it was to Him? To be desired to make one wise, to Eve; but to Him only that which spoke of the mockery and hatred of man and the wrath of a sin-hating God. But thanks be to God, while Eve's-yea, our awful choice-wrought such havoc, His obedience unto death in abounding grace not merely put away sin, nor restored the blissful condition of Eden, but enabled God to pour out all the wealth of His wisdom, love and power in blessing which nevermore can be forfeited.

In Genesis we see two trees, with a choice between them; in Gethsemane but one, the tree of death. And yet, may we not say we also see two there? For,

'"To us Thy cross is life and health,
'Twas shame and death to Thee."

Here, also, is a choice between the two. Here, too, men may choose life or death. He died, that we might live. And as we remember Him in His death, those emblems speak vividly to us of how His death is our life; His sorrow our abounding joy.

As we turn to the New Paradise, once more we see the Tree of Life in the midst, as of old. We look in vain for the tree of death; and yet, do we not see in the Lamb as it had been slain, who gives us to eat of the Tree of Life, the marks that ever remind us of the tree of death where our sins were borne by Jesus? The two are blended into one. We are not forbidden now to eat of the tree of death, nay, rather are we told that except we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have no life in us, but as we do so, we dwell in Him and He in us.

Our eternal occupation in the paradise above will be to feed on Him, with an ever-deepening sense of the mighty love that won our hearts. May we, even now, gazing on Him, be enraptured by His beauty, love and glory! A. Van Ryn