( 143 ) 
It is a land of benediction; it is endowed with a miraculous fertility, 
because it is continually watered with the “river of the water of life,”* 
like crystal, which proceeds from the throne of Almighty God and the 
Lamb; and on both sides of the river there are many trees of life, which 
bring forth fruit twelve times a year,I because they live perpetually, and 
bud forth new and most savory affections and tastes, with which they pre¬ 
serve continually, without weariness, tlieir happy life. 
“That clime is not this dull clime of ours; 
All is brightness there! 
A sweeter influence breathes around its flowers. 
And a far milder air. 
No calm below like that calm above. 
No region here is like that realm of love; 
Earth’s softest spring ne’er shed so soft a light. 
Earth’s brightest summer never shone so bright.” 
—Iloratius Bonar . 
Lent-Lily. 
One of the first flowers that opens in spring is the fragrant Lent-Lily. 
It is of a yellow color, the symbol of desire, and hence it very appropriately 
represents the Just, who sprang up and bloomed during the lapse of the 
forty centuries previous to the advent of Christ. For, were not those forty 
centuries a real Lent, a season of hunger and longing for the promised 
Messiah ? 
Desires After Heavenly Things. 
© OA, the fire often burns, but the flame ascends not without smoke,” 
says a spiritual author. “So also some people’s desires are on fire 
after heavenly things , and yet they are not free from the temptation of 
* Apoc. xxii, 1. 
f Apoc. xxii, 2. 
