_THE THREE GARDENS_
REVELATION xxii. 1-14.
The Bible opens with a garden. It closes with a garden. The first is the
Paradise that was lost. The last is Paradise regained. And between the two
there is a third garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And it is through the
unspeakable bitterness and desolation of Gethsemane that we find again the
glorious garden through which flows "the river of water of life." Without
Gethsemane no New Jerusalem! Without its mysterious and unfathomable night
no blessed sunrise of eternal hope! "We were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son."
We are always in dire peril of regarding our redemption lightly. We hold
it cheaply. Privileges easily come to be esteemed as rights. And even
grace itself can lose the strength of heavenly favour and can be received
and used as our due. "Gethsemane can I forget?" Yes, I can; and in the
forgetfulness I lose the sacred awe of my redemption, and I miss the real
glory of "Paradise regained." "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a
price." That is the remembrance that keeps the spirit lowly, and that
fills the heart with love for Him "whose I am," and whom I ought to
serve.