The River of Life

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1902

The River of Life

It is a gracious prophecy in Ezekiel, “And everything shall live whither the river cometh.” What a beautiful thing to think about! The gospel of Jesus Christ is the river of life in this world. Nothing dead can be found along its banks; everything lives wheresoever the river flows. What beautiful illumination this thought gives to the saying of Jesus: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Death never prevailed in the presence of Jesus; he never attended a funeral without restoring the dead to life. Wheresoever the river flows, “everything shall live.” Is there a dead church, a dead community, a dead (?) Christian? You will not need to ponder the cause very long. The river does not flow through that church or community or professor.

Give the river a chance. Make a channel for it; let us prepare a way for it through every desert, every far-off land, every near-by town, every city, every life. All that this old world needs, in order to make it a heaven below, to blossom as the rose, is to let the river flow unceasingly. The gospel of Christ is the great irrigating stream to water the world’s deserts. Jesus is the water of life to every thirsty soul; “everything shall live whither the river cometh.”—Selected.