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those rivers of pleasure, to which they shall resort hereafter, in the paradise of God—a foretaste, which is a pledge of ultimate and everlasting possession. "The water that I shall give him," saith Jesus, "shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

This similitude still further suggests the idea of peacefulness. This, perhaps, is the main idea of the Psalmist in the passage under consideration, the streams, that gladden the city of God, being evidently contrasted with the roaring and troubled waters of the sea, referred to in the immediately preceding verse. These streams, like the waters of Siloam, "go softly." No rushing, roaring floods are they, but soft and limpid is their flow, pleasant and silvery is their voice. Hence the promise of Jehovah to Zion is, "Behold, I will extend peace to her as a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream." At first, indeed, the operations of the Holy Spirit, instead of instilling peace into the soul, may excite alarm. Accordingly, when aroused to a sense of his naturally lost and ruined condition, the sinner is not seldom seized with trembling

and astonishment, and, like Belshazzar, when he saw the handwriting on the wall, his loins are loosed with fear, and his knees smite the one against the other. So long as this state continues, he may be justly compared to the troubled sea, which cannot rest. But, when the Spirit takes of the things that are Christ's, and shews them unto him, there is produced a peace which passeth all understanding, which a stranger doth not intermeddle with, and which the world can neither give, nor take away. Thus he, whose mind was erewhile tumultuously agitated, like the ocean in a storm, is soothed, and calmed, by the gladdening streams of the Holy Spirit of promise. The peace, of which he is thus made a partaker, is not, like many at least, of the pleasures of the world—a torrent of excitement, and tempestuous mirth, which drowns and disorders, for a season, all the purer feelings of the soul; but a holy, heavenly calm, a gentle, slowly-gliding, quiet stream—

"Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.” This similitude suggests, lastly, the ideas of abundance and continuance. The Spirit is here compared, not to a scanty rivulet, which the scorching heat of summer might soon dry

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up, but to a river of many streams, as though to intimate the fulness of the water of life which is in it, and the abundance of heavenly blessings which it is ever pouring forth. Accordingly, the prophet Isaiah says, "The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams;" while the apostle speaks of the grace of the Spirit as exceeding abundant." Believers, in every age of the world, have been supplied from this river; thousands, and tens of thousands, have drawn out of it, and been filled with its divine consolation; and yet there is no diminution. The efficacy of its streams is inexhaustible; nor shall they ever cease to flow. contrary, they are constantly widening and deepening; and, at last, they will be seen in heaven itself," a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb," and making glad the city of God.

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On the

Reader, does your soul thirst for these gladdening streams? Can you say with the Psalmist, As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God; my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God?" Then, come unhesitatingly,

and drink. These streams are free to all. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." And, having satisfied the longings of your own soul, be it yours to bring others to this river. Seek to diffuse its waters far and wide, until the waste places of the earth shall be refreshed by them, and made fruitful. Freely having received, freely give. Be ready to distribute, willing to communicate of this inestimable gift. For, if from you, as from a secondary fountain, there flow not out rivers of living water, there is but too much reason to fear that you have never yet personally drunk of that "river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God."

"There is a stream, which issues forth

From God's eternal throne,

And from the Lamb, a living stream
Clear as the crystal stone.

"The stream doth water Paradise ;
It makes the angels sing;
One cordial drop revives my heart;
Hence all my joys do spring.

"Such joys as are unspeakable,
And full of glory too;

Such hidden manna, hidden pearls,
As worldlings do not know.

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,

From fancy 'tis concealed,

What Thou, Lord, hast laid up for Thine,

And hast to me revealed."

JOHN MASON.

The New Creation.

GAL. vi. 15.

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

EPHES. ii. 10.

"

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

EPHES. iv. 24.

"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

COL. iii. 10.

"And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."

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