This is the cause of the coolness, and of the weakness, and of the
flatness, and of the many extravagances that attend some of our
desires: they come warm from the Spirit and grace of God in us; hut
as hot water running through cold pipes, or as clear water running
through dirty convey ances, so our desires gather soil.
GRACE--THE WATER OF LIFE.
"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Rev. 22: 1.
This "water of life" is the Spirit and grace of God, and the spirit
of life. Zech. 12: 10; John 4: 10, 11, 14; 7: 37-39; Rev. 11: 11.
A throne is the seat of justice: "Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne." Psal. 89: 14. And it is also from justice
that this river of grace flows to us: justice to Christ, and justice
to those that are found in him. Rom. 3: 24. God declares that he can
justly justify, justly forgive: now, if he can justly justify and
justly forgive, then can he give grace and cause that it should
proceed to, yea, flow after us as a river. But whence must this
come? the text says, from the throne--from the throne, the seat of
justice; for from thence, by reason of what He hath found in Christ
for us, he in a way of righteousness and justice lets out to us
rivers of his pleasures, whoso original is that great and wide sea
of mercy that flows in his infinite heart beyond thought.
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