The Holy City

It was a garden in the primal age,
But at the end it is a city square;
Creation's center in the garden was,
God's building issues in the city fair.

Both in the garden and the city fair
A river and the tree of life are seen,
Christ typifying as the life supply,
The Spirit showing as the living stream.

Both in the garden and the city bright
Three kinds of precious substances are found;
There are the gold, the pearls, and precious stones
Which for the building work of God abound.

But in the garden all these precious things
Are just materials lying in the earth,
Yet in the city all are builded up
And form that dwelling of transcendent worth.

Man in the garden of the clay was formed,
In nature as the Lord created him;
The tree of life was then without the man,
Not having yet become his life within.

But in the city glorious the tree
Within the corporate "man" doth grow, thereby
Revealing Christ Himself as life divine
Being to man his inward life supply.