River of Life by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 9, 1873

River of Life.

By A. Smith

“AND he showed me a pure river of water of life.”

The turbid waters of the river that flows at my feet, as they gurgle by, murmur of a sin-cursed earth, groaning for the deliverance which can only be wrought by a divine hand. In the sedgy margin, serpents flee at the sound of my approaching steps; here and there the bare branches of dead trees are drawn in distinct outline against the dark foliage of the forest behind; while from the adjacent marsh are borne disease-freighted miasm and melancholy sounds.

River of life! In vision, I see thy transparent waters as they flow through the garden of God, in such marked contrast with the rivers of earth, that I long to be with the sinless ones, who, with holy angels, shall tread its beautiful margin, or bathe in its life-giving tide. A. Smith.