Chap. 346---Garden of Eden Restored

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7.
The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an
outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to gaze upon
the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the watching angels. At the
cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine glory was revealed. Hither came
Adam and his sons to worship God. Here they renewed their vows of obedience
to that law the transgression of which had banished them from Eden. When the
tide of iniquity overspread the world, and the wickedness of men determined their
destruction by a flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from
the earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be “a new heaven and a new
earth” (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously adorned than at the
beginning.
Then they that have kept God’s commandments shall breathe in immortal vigor
beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the inhabitants of sinless worlds
shall behold, in that garden of delight, a sample of the perfect work of God’s
creation, untouched by the curse of sin—a sample of what the whole earth would
have become, had man but fulfilled the Creator’s glorious plan.
Adam is reinstated in his first dominion. Transported with joy, he beholds the
trees that were once his delight—the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered
in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have
trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality
of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored.
Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will “grow up”
(Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval glory. The last lingering
traces of the curse of sin will be removed, and Christ’s faithful ones will appear in
“the beauty of the Lord our God,” in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect
image of their Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for,
contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood."