Revelation 22:2, commentary and pictures

In the midst of the street of the New Jerusalem and on either side of the pure river of life proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb stands the tree of life, one tree appearing as two trunks joined in one crown whose branches bow to the redeemed, bearing twelve kinds of fruit every month continually and leaves for the healing of the nations. It is the possession of everlasting life and happiness for overcomers when there is no more curse, death, sorrow, crying, or pain, and they serve God, see His face, and live measuring with the life of God. Right to it and entrance through the gates into the city belongs to those who do His commandments, keep God's law and the faith of Jesus, and follow Christ in self-denying obedience from the heart. It is the same tree that stood in Eden to perpetuate immortality, barred after disobedience and moved to paradise above, to which Adam will be led back by the Saviour to eat and be reinstated, and Eden itself will be restored in the new earth more glorious than at the beginning. Christ Himself is that tree of life to believers now and in paradise, and His leaves are the promises and words of God given now for healing, received and assimilated to become strength of character, restoration of the moral image of God, and vital energy for soul and body.

Vision Words and Setting

The tree stands in the middle of the street of the city, the New Jerusalem, and on either side of the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Beside that river in the city it bears twelve kinds of fruit and yields its fruit every month, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. It is the home Christ prepares for His faithful ones and the reward of the overcomer, showing the possession of everlasting life and everlasting happiness after brief service. There there is no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb with His servants serving Him, seeing His face and reigning forever. That life is given to those who receive Christ and believe on Him, bringing close relationship with God as sons of God in union with angels, cherubim and seraphim, Gabriel and the archangel, and it will surely be fulfilled as life everlasting with the mighty blessing of God on those who take all the Scriptures as guide and walk in His way.

It is one tree that at first appears as two trunks, one on each side of the river. The trunk on each side is of pure transparent gold, joined at the top into one crown. Though first seen as two trees, the two are united at the top and form one tree. Its branches extend over the place where the redeemed stand and bow down to where they stand, toward the saints. Its glorious fruit looks like gold mixed with silver, under which the redeemed go and sit down to behold the glory of the place.

It bears twelve kinds of fruit and yields its fruit every month continually through the year. Its leaves are for the healing, or service, of the nations. Beside the river and along the paths of God's people in the redeemed inheritance, its image is of immortal trees with fruits that never fail, pointing to everlasting abundance of the life to come. The following verse connects the tree with the right of those who do God's commandments to enter the city.

The verse belongs to John's last-chapter vision of future restoration shown by an angel, made known by Christ on Patmos as faithful and true sayings of things shortly to be done. It describes the time when the work is closed and finished, when death, sorrow, crying and pain have ended. There is no more curse, for the throne of God and of the Lamb is there, His servants serve Him, they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads. Where once no one could see God's face and live, circumstances are changed for a people prepared to see even the face of God. It is a solemn warning for the last days to be read carefully and prayerfully, to impress heart, life and character, to call minds from confusion to lean on the Lord alone, worship God alone, repent and be ready, connecting the tree of life with keeping God's commandments and having right to enter the city and with the invitation to all who are athirst to come and take the water of life freely.

The scene is a real, material promised land and heavenly city, not to be spiritualized away, a heaven of bliss entered through pearly gates by those prepared with a white robe of character. It has streets and a broad street of pure transparent gold, in the middle of which flows the clear river of life, with trees of living green growing on either side. There are ever-flowing streams clear as crystal and waving trees shading the paths prepared for the ransomed of the Lord, where the heavenly Shepherd leads His flock to fountains of living waters. The land holds wide plains swelling into hills of beauty and the lofty mountains of God, where God's people so long pilgrims and wanderers find a home and lasting rest. Both fruit and foliage give health and life to those who eat them, and the beautiful things of earthly nature are only a faint shadow of this original in full loveliness, which eye has not seen, imagination can only faintly grasp, no finite mind can comprehend, and human language cannot fully describe. Heaven and earth drink of the same pure streams as one church, and on another world a tree like it shows one tree forbidden whose eating would cause a fall.

Eternal Home and Reward

The tree stands with the pure river of water of life proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, bearing twelve kinds of fruit every month with leaves for the healing of the nations, where there is no more curse and His servants serve Him and see His face and reign forever. It is the possession of everlasting life and everlasting happiness for overcomers after a few brief years of service to God, requiring earnest and determined service, sanctified obedience, and overcoming sin, negligence, and recklessness now. That reward means living forever and ever with no more trials, no more griefs, and no more temptations, and life measuring with the life of God in peace, harmony, and love. It is the home for God's people after long pilgrimage and wandering, beside ever-flowing streams clear as crystal with waving trees casting shadows upon paths prepared for the ransomed, with widespread plains, hills of beauty, and the mountains of God. There there are no more tears, death, sorrow, crying, funeral trains, badges of mourning, sickness, night, or pain, but only righteousness dwells, and the Great Physician wipes away every tear and sorrow.

Eating its fruit and drinking the water of the river of life is still future and soon-coming, conditional on faithfully delivering God's message and enduring to the end. It is the promise of life for those who remain faithful despite suffering, sustained by sufficient grace. Those who are brought to serve God look forward to partaking of its life and healing in the redeemed home. Those who return to earth to tell what has been revealed are not yet to eat, but the faithful will eat when they enter the heavenly land and go back to earth no more.

Its fruit is freely and triumphantly given and gathered by the redeemed, who approach it freely in the saints' joyful eternal home. They walk beneath its shade and remain forever near their Saviour, go under the tree, sit in its glory, pluck its fruit and eat joyfully. Access is no longer barred by a flaming guard, and no power prohibits any soul from partaking. Along the banks of the river grow other beautiful trees whose fruit is good for food, and Jesus Himself leads His people to the tree in the city and invites them all to eat freely of its most beautiful fruit. Christ will be with His people there, and they will see the King in His beauty.

Its fruit includes many kinds, such as manna, almonds, figs, pomegranates, grapes and many others, real fruit for the redeemed to eat. It is laid on a vast table of pure silver in the city after it comes down from heaven to settle on the new earth, for the marriage supper of the redeemed who came out of great tribulation. The eating is still future and conditional and near, to be shared together with drinking of the water of the fountain, and if faithful for a little while the redeemed will both eat and drink. Those who eat of the fruit of that land go back to earth no more, so eating marks permanent life in the better world.

Christ as heavenly Teacher and Shepherd leads His redeemed ones beside the river of life and to the tree and fountains to behold Him in His beauty and matchless charms. There He teaches wonderful truths, explains the parts of God's Word they could not understand and the truths over which they stumbled, unfolds the mysteries of grace, nature, and glories not comprehended now, and explains the dark providences through which He led them to perfect their characters. Where finite minds discerned only confusion and broken purposes they will see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. There with undimmed vision the redeemed will cast at the feet of the Redeemer the crowns He placed on their heads and, touching their golden harps, will render praise and thanksgiving to Him that sitteth on the throne, learning God's supreme love and skill and care in creation and in giving His Son, and continue learning through ages in the higher school.

The tree with its healing leaves belongs to the promised life and restoration of the land to come, the bright holy land where the lonely pilgrim band will soon have a dwelling and be homeless no more, where life's pure river runs and the fruitful tree stands bearing fruit. It is part of the saints' joyful eternal home where friends and relatives separated by death are reunited and praise God together, the dead awake and trials seem small and heaven is seen worth its cost. Its fruit will be given to the good and holy after the Lord comes, to the faithful who learned on earth to rely on God for guidance, wisdom, comfort, and hope, in lasting happiness and lasting rest free from sickness and temptation. Its leaves promise future complete bodily restoration with perfect health and no lameness for those who love God with all their heart, to be partaken of at last in the life to come. Parents are to fit children to be transferred there.

Eden Lost and Restored

The tree in the vision is the same tree that stood in the garden of Eden, whose glory surpassed every other tree there. Its fruit looked like apples of gold and silver and carried supernatural power to perpetuate immortality. Both its fruit and its leaves sustained life and immortality, and its leaves contained healing properties.

After sin entered through Adam's disobedience humanity was barred from it and Adam lost its use. The tree was removed to the paradise above, though its branches extend toward the world below. Through redemption purchased by Christ's blood its life-giving fruit may still be received, and the redeemed regain access to its abundant fruit and healing leaves in restored Paradise. The Saviour Himself leads Adam back to it, plucks its glorious fruit and bids him eat, reinstating him in his first dominion through the atonement, while a multitude of his redeemed family stands with him in Paradise. Adam recognizes the restored home as Eden, now more lovely than when he was banished from it.

Eden was withdrawn from the earth when the flood came, but it will be restored in the new earth more gloriously adorned than at the beginning. There it stands far more beautiful now than when Adam was banished, with the very trees that were once Adam's delight there again. The restored garden will remain as a sample of perfect creation untouched by sin's curse, showing what the whole earth would have become if humanity had fulfilled the Creator's plan.

The sin of Adam and Eve in transgression of God's holy law lost holy paradise for themselves and their posterity. Those who continue to live in transgression without repentance will never regain the lost paradise but will perish, for Adam and Eve lost their right to their Eden home by disobedience and choosing that same disobedience forfeits the right to the Eden restored. Christ did not die to save the sinner in his sins, and the way to Paradise restored is the path of obedience. Sinners are saved by grace, justified freely by the blood of Christ, and through faith claiming the merits of His precious blood they must turn from disobedience to acceptable obedience. The right must be secured without delay by leaving the side of rebellion, giving the whole soul to God, choosing the good and refusing the evil, seeking the Lord while He may be found, and following Jesus in this world to dwell with Him on the earth renewed and beautified. That Eden home is restored to man through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the sick are to be instructed concerning this restoration in quiet secluded places as far from cities as is consistent, using every restorative agency provided.

Right Through Obedience and Character

The right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city belongs to those who do His commandments, keep God's law and the faith of Jesus, follow Christ in self-denial and cross-bearing with His tender spirit ruling the heart, and obey from the heart. Keeping the commandments is connected with entering in to the river of life, clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and to the tree of life in the midst of the street and on either side of the river, bearing twelve manner of fruits and yielding fruit every month continually, with leaves for the healing of the nations, where there is no more curse and no night. Those who comply with the requirements enter to where God and the Lamb reign, His servants serve Him and see His face with His name in their foreheads and reign forever, a people prepared to see even the face of God where Moses was told no man shall see God's face and live, while those who fail to obey are left outside the city. The chapter is to be read carefully and prayerfully because it concerns those living in the last days, and all who are athirst are invited to come and take of the water of life freely.

Those who enter must be prepared with a white robe of character, having given all to Jesus, denied self and sacrificed at every step as Christ did, lifted the cross, cleansed everything defiling, and been fashioned in this life in the divine likeness in harmony with God's law. They come out and separate from uncleanness, cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfect holiness in the fear of God, connect with heaven, learn on earth to rely on God for guidance, wisdom, comfort and hope, and contend with habit to overcome perverted appetite and passion. Both the fruit and the foliage give health and life to those who eat them, so that everything is lovely with no sickness, no sorrow, no pain and no death, and life there measures with the life of God. Then are streets of pure gold like transparent glass, crowns of immortal glory for victors standing in the city of God through strength taken hold of from the arm of the Lord, and a voice sweeter and richer than any mortal music, while the beautiful things of earthly nature are only a faint shadow of that paradise of bliss entered through the pearly gates.

No barrier prevents anyone from partaking and living forever, no flaming sword is placed before the tree, and no power can prohibit any soul from taking its fruit. It stands freely open as the Scriptures, the "It is written" gospel to be preached, and all who will may partake and all who eat live forever. All the athirst are invited to come and take the water of life freely, and a fallen world that repents and by believing accepts a personal Saviour through the personal Father who gave His only begotten Son up to death will be permitted to eat of its leaves. Those who love God and keep His commandments by practicing His Word pluck and eat those leaves for the healing of the nations, and they bring healing.

Destiny is decided now in this lifetime school of probation by obedience or disobedience to God's moral standard of righteousness, by being a loyal subject rather than a rebel, by placing proper value on God-given capabilities and doubling entrusted talents of mind, time and money in work that lasts through eternal ages unto the highest standard of perfection. Receiving right to the tree and entrance through the gates means receiving life, eternal life, a glorious immortality through Christ the great Restorer, for Adam lost the right to use its life-giving fruit and healing leaves through sin and obedience through Jesus Christ restores the right. Those failing to obey are left outside, including ministers who preach their own suppositions and teach for doctrine things not contained in God's Word, who will be as those excluded from the life it offers. The tree will not bear tobacco and the city has no place for that narcotic whose effects debase the mind and unfit for the kingdom, for tobacco, opium, drug medication, liquors and narcotics are Satan's poisonous productions planted to take its place, coming from perverted knowledge and destroying with death, madness, murder and violence instead of healing, so perverted appetite must be given up to see the King.

The throne of God, the river of life and the tree of life are pure features of the future heavenly inheritance, beautiful in their purity, and the promise of immortal life calls to seek purity of body and spirit to be fit for the inheritance of the saints. The tree of life and the crystal waters are in the city of God, the metropolis of the kingdom, belonging to the joys of the kingdom forever. They are not merely permitted but triumphantly given as the abundant entrance promised to those who honor their lives by well-doing and ascend step by step in overcoming, who are conducted in triumph into the city and welcomed by the voice of Jesus Himself saying Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, Welcome to the tree of life and the crystal waters.

Christ the Living Tree

Christ planted the tree of life for the human race, for fallen men, and came to this world to show it to them. He came to bring its life-giving healing to people, for its leaves bring healing to the nations. This stands opposite the tree of knowledge, which age after age men seek from curiosity and ambition for glory and self-exaltation and supremacy, thinking they pluck fruit most essential, yet like Solomon's search it proves vanity and nothingness beside the science of true holiness that opens the gates of the city of God. Adam and Eve let Satan break God's restraint and began education under the teacher of lies to gain the knowledge God had refused them, to know the consequence of transgression, so their descendants have a practical knowledge of evil, and Christ came to point them to the opposite provision, whose leaves are His remedy for desperate rebellion unto reconciliation, enabling men through His own example as a great educating power to resist Satan's power, have character molded and mental power given, receive the beams of true education, and keep the true aim of life in view.

Christ Himself is the tree of life to believers in this life and to everyone who believes as the Restorer in the Paradise of God. He bears twelve kinds of fruit in them, proved by the spirituality of their lives, their affections, and their faith, by having His love in the heart and showing unselfish love for others doing the work God has given them, and by receiving instruction from Christ as the great Teacher. Coming to Him gives perfection and complete restoration, bringing humanity into connection with divinity and oneness with Him, and He sustains the soul as life-giving nourishment from the tree sustains life, so that without Christ abiding within and supplying that life even a wise and talented person is not a safe guide for God's people. The Holy Spirit presents His precious fruit and brings His words to mind for comfort, hope, and a sense of forgiveness, awakening gratitude and security, so that through faith His unfailing righteousness becomes theirs.

His branches reach down to this lower world so that the blessings He purchased are brought within reach. From Him believers may pluck and eat freely, and then guide others to Him that they also may eat, communicating to others as freely as they have received, receiving through Him the blessings He has secured and blessing the world with God's messages. He had access to that source of life and knowledge, which explains the wisdom and scientific knowledge He showed despite receiving no instruction from human teachers.

As source of light and fountain of life He brings people to His Word now and from the tree presents leaves for the healing of the nations. The healing is moral and spiritual perfection through the grace and power of Christ received at every step by calling on His help and following Him in character-building, providing spiritual help as they are purified and sanctified. Its purpose is that human beings purified and sanctified shall be His helping hand, living in close contact with Christ and touching His living power.

Those who draw nearer to God become fruitful like trees watered by the river of life beside which they stand. Its precious, lifegiving food for the soul and its leaves for the healing of the nations are to be gathered now, for God has planted it in the New Jerusalem where Christ now is in the heavenly sanctuary. Gathering is by giving devotion to Jesus where He is, seeking the Holy Spirit as His representative wherever His people worship, knowing Jesus by experimental knowledge as a personal Saviour, and gathering up every ray of divine light, looking not to old Jerusalem where Christ once was but to the New Jerusalem where He now is.

Leaves as Present Word Healing

The leaves are the promises and words of God, His grace and living principles given now for the healing and sustaining of life. In those promises Christ speaks to each person individually and directly, as if His voice were heard, communicating His grace and power. Received and assimilated, they become strength of character and the inspiration and sustenance of life, with nothing else having such healing power and nothing besides imparting the courage and faith that give vital energy to the whole being. They are more precious than refined gold and have power to sanctify, and through His word Jesus offers them as healing for sin-sick souls. When provoked, those who receive that healing in this life focus on eternal things, helping them know when to keep silent and when to speak.

Studying Scripture is like eating those leaves, and practicing Christ's words cleanses and sanctifies and leads to nourishing of spiritual health and eternal life. Searching Scripture for its hidden treasures yields precious knowledge that brings healing and help, and obeying Christ and feeding on His words by living faith is eating those leaves and receiving their healing. The Word of God is a leaf from that tree, nourishing and refreshing the soul and bringing spiritual healing, and receiving and sharing its life-giving message refreshes the mind. The Bible and the Bible alone as counselor meets every want of those who love its teachings and bring them into practical daily life, so teachers need an intimate acquaintance with it and students unconverted and not knowing what it means to be sanctified through belief of the truth must be taught to search and understand it, receive its truths into the heart and carry them out in daily life, and so become strong in the Lord, with spiritual sinew and muscle nourished by the bread of life. Diligent searching, comparing Scripture, meditating and digesting truth forms character, refreshes strength, shares the divine nature and overcomes corruption, and must be heard rightly with attention and faith to share its benefit.

Eating the leaves restores the moral image of God and heals false habits, infirmities even from wrong choices, wounds from being hurt and crowded, worry, weariness, downcast hearts and irritated minds. Communion with Christ the Life-giver is available to all in this life in connection with Him, regardless of educational advantages, and healing power is found in Christ even for infirmities caused by a person's own wrong choices. The words of Christ are like those leaves healing every kind of spiritual distress even in this life, and His present gift of the Bible and its words of promise heals from false habits and opens a way for God's peace and glory to be revealed. Unlike hasty words that stir strife, that healing teaches when to keep silent and when to speak, and Christ can use the leaf to do more in five minutes than a lifetime of human effort.

The Word as leaf is to be eaten daily like bread from heaven for spiritual health, making a wholesome healthy Christian who stays under self-control, glorifies God, speaks no hasty overbearing dictatorial words, and reveals fruits of righteousness in well-ordered life and godly conversation that helps perfect the church. It is to be hungered for more than newspapers and novels, taken in small companies with prayer amid angels unto integrity, comfort and joy, prayed for persistently, and spread everywhere to perishing souls in spiritual darkness. When small companies assemble in the evening, at noon, or in the early morning to study the Bible with a season of prayer to be strengthened, enlightened and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, this feeding brings great blessing, the presence of angels, loving acquaintance with fellow workers, testimonies in simple words, comfort and joy greater than pleasant instruments of music, the coming of Christ into the heart, and the maintaining of integrity. Leaflets of present truth, lessons from parables and from Christ's Object Lessons, and the simple truths Christ taught are like those leaves bringing life and spiritual benefit to desolate places, parents and children, in contrast to intricate learning that soars high but rests nowhere and cannot touch common people, meeting what even the most intelligent businessmen desire and what the world needs today.

The Bible as tree of life stands freely open with every part useful and books united to complete the family in Christ, educating people and making the human family complete in Him. No flaming sword is placed before this tree of life, so all who will may partake and no power can prohibit any soul from taking its fruit, and all who eat live forever. It is spirit and life needing divine enlightenment, critical prayerful study and preaching of Christ in plain language, giving living bread from heaven instead of mere theories by telling every soul what to do to be saved, more precious than gold, safe, pure and ennobling, sweeter than honey when digested, a well springing to everlasting life making heaven in the church. The Word of Life received into an opened heart brings comfort and refreshment amid infirmity, and God alone gives recognition of mercy, love and forbearance that produces faith working by love and purifying the soul by obeying the truth.

The fruit of the tree is the practical usable knowledge Christ gives for daily need, salvation, the way to God and eternal life, not speculative curiosity. The pure streams flowing from the throne are the principles of truth in Christ's gospel teaching, and the water of life and fruit mean the science of salvation for practical life, given to seek and to save that which was lost. Christ does not gratify curiosity or prying questions, but closes every other avenue and seals every other fountain and offers instead this life-giving fruit to those eager to pluck from the tree of knowledge. He could have imparted knowledge surpassing all previous disclosures, put every other discovery in the background, unlocked mystery after mystery and drawn earnest thought to the close of time, but He would not spare a moment from salvation and allowed nothing to divert Him, using time, faculties and life only as means for working out salvation and confining instruction to knowledge that could be utilized for that need.

Intemperate desire led to the loss of Eden, and temperance in all things has an important part in regaining it in restored Eden. The leaves are the promises of God in the Bible, and opened before the tempted struggling victim of intemperance whose will is depraved and weakened and read over and over again, they awaken higher impulses and holier desires in Christ, encourage laying hold of the hope set before him in the gospel, and as patient effort continues lead with grateful joy to grasp redemption through Christ. Words of truth spoken as comfort and hope act as such a leaf when ministered to the sick, leading to faith in Christ Jesus and bringing healing from sinful indulgence of intemperate habits and sensual propensities, so that as souls decide to count the cost they are saved from ruin of soul as well as of body.

Ministry and Life Application

Bringing a leaf from the tree into the sickroom means bringing Christ's presence and the bread of life to the sufferer, sharing life-giving truth from God's Word for spiritual healing alongside work for the body. The physician who loves Christ and the souls for whom He died does in that place the very work Christ would do, subordinating everything to the higher interest of life saved unto life eternal and doing all in power to save both body and soul through obstacles and difficulties as a solemn and sacred work. Nurses draw spiritual comfort and consolation from Scripture to share with the sick and suffering, and the Christian physician shares the joy and promises of God's Word as healing and blessing that sustains the soul through rejoicing in Christ. Patients are thus drawn to Jesus and to the tree for soul and body, unto final life where there is no sin or death, by physicians who are Bible Christians copying His methods.

Medical missionary work brings those leaves to sin-sick souls to restore peace, hope, and faith in Christ Jesus by instruction in Christ in word and example. Sanitariums aim to help bring people into the company that will one day eat of the tree, giving messages from God's Word to patients in medical institutions for spiritual healing. Workers in country atmosphere and health reform teach principles of restoration, showing that God has not abandoned the guilty but invites them to life, with healing of soul greater than healing of body.

Receiving a leaf pictures finding peace, joy, renewed strength, hope and cheer in present experience through communion with Christ and lingering with Him in prayer, yielding the will. Its healing is needed now by Christians amid last-day perils to cure feeble and diseased spirituality, restore lost first love, awaken those who know not the time of visitation and do little for the Master, and make them ready to meet Christ at His sudden appearing. Drawing that healing means coming apart and resting awhile and pleading in prayer for oneself while others also plead, so peace is made with God against worry, weariness, and downcast hearts. Those gathered for worship should receive and impart this healing through words that comfort, encourage, soothe and bless, rather than gossip or scandalous reports that burden minds and disturb the soul's peace, and God's words of comfort are like such a leaf to receivers.

Every miracle of Christ leads toward the healing life of the tree, for no miracle is worked except to supply a genuine necessity, and its character draws people toward that life. The feeding of the multitude shows this by meeting genuine need with simple food rather than luxury, pointing beyond physical food to God's life-giving provision and healing. God's natural provisions, received simply, bring blessing, while perverted appetite by unnatural taste and selfish excess brings harm.

Faithful workers and the souls saved through their labor share the hope of being led by the Lamb to the tree and the fountain of living waters, seeing them redeemed and sharing the joy and honor of the Redeemer's throne and kingdom. The prospect that there is a heaven to win, well worth striving for, with preparation made for eternity, should move to help others seek it. The Christian life answering that image is itself a tree for healing of the nations, bearing Christlike unselfish love and service that with one hand lays hold of needy, sinful, helpless, fallen humanity and with the other grasps the throne of God to lift and build up in most holy faith with undefeated perseverance, and selfish ambition is not its fruit. God's workers are urged to receive those leaves as spiritual nourishment for healing and spiritual life, to bless difficult places.

The healing water that cures every kind of disease must be obtained personally rather than have it obtained for another, echoing the river beside the tree with its life and healing, though the dream imagery does not explain the monthly fruit. Christ has opened a fountain of living water for healing of the nations, open to all, and all may come and drink from the resources God has appointed. To forsake this fountain for cisterns hewn by human endeavor is infinite loss, for money, position, expensive buildings, achievements winning applause, and leaning on unsanctified human ability are shallow human cisterns that in drought hold no water and leave thirst unallayed amid cares, disappointments, and mental and physical pain.

Even marred by the curse, field and orchard, tree and shrub and flower proffer that leaf-healing to believing repentant children who avail themselves of the blessing, as part of Christ's constant work to restore the moral image of God in man. The sick may find there health and gladness and joy, a restorative from sickness and a preventive of sickness, though present fruit and flowers are nothing in comparison with what they will be in the earth made new. Giving those leaves to perishing souls means leading them to God, which requires trusting and submitting fully to Him rather than following personal impulses.