by Louis T. Talbot
tures. In turning to John’s Gospel, we find it said of Christ in the first chapter “ In him was life,” and that He was “ full of grace and truth.” Again, you will recall how the Lord Himself spoke to the sinful Samaritan woman about the necessity of drinking “ living water” in order to find peace and joy (John 4:10). The water the Saviour gives truly satisfies and causes the believer to contain “a well of wa ter” which springs up into everlasting life. Dear fellow-believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have drunk of that living water which is Christ Himself; otherwise you could not be saved. But among the blessed features of the New Jerusalem is the flowing of the river of water of life from the throne of God and of the Lamb, representing Christ as He is yet to he known. Fresh wonders of the Saviour’s person will be unfolded endlessly. In Heaven there will be habitual worship. Of the home of the redeemed, John makes a somewhat surprising statement: “And I saw no temple there in” (Rev. 21:22). There will be a temple in the earthly millennial Jerusalem, but none in the New Jerusalem, the believer’s eternal home. No matter how sweet the idea of an earthly house of worship may be to you, any such structure localizes God.
rom what the Bible reavels, there will be no monotony in Heaven. In Heaven there will he an eternal unfolding of the glories of God and o f His Son in the work of redemption. This fact is clearly implied in- Revela tion 22:1: “ And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” This verse is a part of the description o f the heavenly Jerusalem, as the portion which immedi ately follows speaks of “ the street of it,” evidently identifying it with what has gone before in the previous chapter. What does this “ river of water of life . . . proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb” mean ? May it not refer to the Holy Spirit’s testimony to Christ? Believers have all drunk of that testimony here on earth, for “ the Sp irit. . . beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16). But, beloved, there will be in the eternal ages a never-ending un folding of the matchless glory of the Person and work o f our wonderful Lord. It will pass before our wondering eyes like the constant flowing of an endless river. This thought is made clear from other Scrip
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MAY, 1969
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