Healing Leaves

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 9, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. (ON BEHALF OF THE RELIGIOUS
TRACT SOCIETY).

"The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Revelation 22:2

WE have in the 21st and 22nd chapters of the Book of Revelation a very
wonderful description of Heaven upon earth. I shall not attempt to go
into any prophetical explanations as to when this will be fulfilled,
but we know this for certain, for we have it in so many words, that the
holy city, New Jerusalem, will descend out of Heaven from God, and
that, in a word, there will be, for a time at least, a Heaven on earth.
But inasmuch as Heaven, be it where it may, is still Heaven, the
description of Heaven on earth sufficiently benefits us to reveal, in
some measure, the present joys and blessings of the celestial state.

We shall not make any mistake if we read the passage as hundreds of
thousands have done before us, and as all common readers will always
persist in doing, as a description of the heavenly state as it is at
present, for what can come down from Heaven but that which is in
Heaven? The results of the revealed Presence of the God of Love must
be, to His saints, very much the same at all times. The same Glory will
be revealed, the same happiness bestowed, the same occupations
followed, the same fellowship enjoyed. We may, therefore, consider that
we have before us a description of what Heaven now is and shall be,
world without end, save only that the bodies of the saints are not yet
raised and, therefore, all the minute details may not be fully
developed.

The glowing metaphors here employed, for we must, to a large extent,
regard the language as figurative, is evidently taken from the Garden
of Eden. That was man's first inheritance and it is a type of his last.
That Paradise which the first Adam lost us, the second Adam will regain
for us, but with added bliss and superior joy! We shall dwell where a
river rolls with placid streams and compasses a land where there is
gold, "and the gold of that land is good, there is myrrh and the onyx
stone." The river is watering every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and flows hard by the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden.

Yet, though there is a likeness between Heaven and Eden, there is a
difference, too, for the earthly Paradise with all its perfections was
still of the earth, earthy. And the second Paradise is, like the Lord
from Heaven, heavenly and Divine! The fatal Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil, hedged about by a solemn threat, grows not in the garden of
the immortals. They have known evil, but they now, "know the Lord," and
know evil no more. Everything in the Divine Paradise is fuller and more
abundant. The gold, which in Eden lay in the soil, is used in the
heavenly Paradise to pave the streets. The river has no earthly source,
but is "a pure river of the Wafer of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb."

The Lord, who in Eden walked only at solemn intervals, "among the trees
of the garden in the cool of the day," has, in Heaven, His Tabernacle
among men and dwells among them, while the trees which grew in Eden,
and ripened their fruits only in autumn, are succeeded by trees with 12
fruitages in the year. It has been thought that man would have
preserved the immortality of his body by eating of the Tree of Life in
Eden and that, therefore, when he sinned he was shut out from it, "lest
he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat, and
live forever." Some even go so far as to think that the extreme
longevity of the antediluvians may have been helped by the remaining
influence of that wondrous food upon the constitution of man for many
generations.

Of that we know nothing, it is all conjecture. It is, however, very
customary for expositors to speak of the Tree of Life in the Garden as
the sacrament of the primeval age, the eating of whose fruit they
conceive to be the grand means of preserving Adam from death. Now,
there is a Tree of Life in Heaven, but there is this difference, that
it is more accessible–more accessible even than when Adam was in
perfection–for if there were but one Tree of Life in the Garden, the

Garden was certainly divided by the river which flowed in several
streams through it. Therefore the tree could not always be easily
reached from all parts of the garden.

In the passage before us we have the Tree of Life on either side of the
river, which, I suppose, means that there were many such trees–though
there was only one tree as to its kind, yet many in number. The picture
presented to the mind's eye would appear to be that of a wide street
with a river flowing down the center, like some of the broader canals
of Holland, with trees growing on either side, all of them of the same
kind, all called the Tree of Life. I do not know how we can make the
figure out in any other way. Some have represented the tree as only one
and growing in the bottom of the river, rising out of the water, and so
sending boughs on either side, being, itself, so large as to shade all
the city. Such a conception is almost monstrous!

But to conceive of many Trees of Life, all one tree as to quality and
nature, growing all along the street, is to present a beautiful image
which can very readily be conceived by the mind. At any rate, to all
the inhabitants of Heaven the Tree of Life is equally and perpetually
accessible. They may come at it when they may. No cherub's flaming
sword stands there to keep them back, but they may always come and eat
of its 12 fruitages and pluck its healing leaves–

"Joy here holds court within its own metropolis! And through its midst
the crystal river flows Exhaustless from the everlasting Throne, Shaded
on either side by Trees of Life Which yield in still unvarying
interchange Their ripe vicissitude of monthly fruits Amid their
clustering leaves medicinal." We are about to speak only of the leaves
of this true arbor vitae, "the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations." Of what can this tree be but a type but of our Lord
Jesus Christ and His salvation? What can it signify but that the
Presence of Christ preserves the inhabitants of Heaven forever free
from sickness, while beyond Heaven, the precincts among the nations,
the saving influence is scattered?

As the leaves fall from the trees, so does sacred influence descend
from our Lord Jesus in Heaven down to the sons of men! And as the
leaves are the least precious products of a fruit-bearing tree, so the
least things that have to do with Him and come from Him have a healing
virtue in them. I shall handle the text very briefly in reference to
Heaven and then, at full length, endeavor to bring out its relation to
earth, as the Holy Spirit may enable me.

I. In REFERENCE TO HEAVEN. If you read the passage you will see that
the heavenly City is described as having an abundance of all manner of
delights. Do men rejoice in wealth? "The very streets are paved with
gold exceedingly clear and fine." The gates are pearls and the walls
are built of precious stones. No palace of the Caesars or of the Indian
Moguls could rival the gorgeous riches of the city of the Great King–

"That city with the jeweled crest Like some new-lighted sun! A blaze of
burning amethyst, Ten thousand orbs in one."

In our cities we feel greatly the need of light. It must have been a
dreary age when our ancestors groped their way at night through
unlighted streets, or gathered poor comfort from the feeble, struggling
rays of a poor candle placed over each householder's door. The heavenly
City knows no night at all and, consequently, needs no candle. Indeed,
its endless day is independent of the sun, itself, "for the Glory of
God did lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof." Conveniences for
worship are terribly needed in many of our great cities and it is a
good work to erect temples in which worshippers may assemble. But,
speaking paradoxically, Heaven is well-supplied in this respect,
because of an utter absence, both of the need of such places and of the
places themselves!

"I saw no temple therein," for, indeed, the whole place is a temple!
And every street is, in the highest sense, hallowed ground. O blessed
place, where we shall not need to enter into our closet to worship our
Father who is in Heaven, but shall, in the open street, behold the
unveiled vision of God! O blessed time, when there shall be no
Sabbaths, but one endless Sabbath! O joy of joys when there shall be no
breaking up of happy congregations, but where the general assembly and
Church of the Firstborn shall be met for an everlasting service and
spend it all in glorifying God!

Cities on earth should, more and more, strive after purity. I am glad
that more attention is being paid to cleanliness. Too long has the age
of filth made the crowded populations the prey of disease and death. Up
yonder in Heaven the sanitary measures are perfection, for, "there
shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatever
works abomination or makes a lie." There, every inhabitant is without
fault before the Throne of God, having neither spot nor wrinkle! There,
everything healthy, everything holy and the thrice Holy One, Himself,
is in their midst! As for the necessities under which glorified beings
may be placed, we know but very little about them, but certainly, if
they need to drink, there is the river of the Water of Life, clear as
crystal! And if they require to eat, there are abundant fruits ripening
each month upon that wondrous tree!

All that saints can possibly need or desire will be abundantly
supplied. No pining need or grim anxiety shall tempt them to ask the
question, "What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or, with what
shall we be clothed?" "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb
which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters." Nor is there merely provision made
for bare necessities–their love of beauty is considered. The City,
itself, shines "like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone,
clear as crystal."

And her glorious foundations are garnished with all manner of precious
stones, insomuch that her Light, as seen afar by the nations, gladdens
them and attracts them to her. A city whose streets are lined with
trees laden with luscious fruits must be lovely beyond all expression!
They said of the earthly Jerusalem, "Beautiful for situation, the joy
of the whole earth is Mount Zion." But what shall we say of you, O
Jerusalem above? Zion! Zion! Our happy home where our Father dwells!
Where Jesus manifests His love! Where so many of our Brothers and
Sisters have wended their happy way, to which our steps are evermore
directed! Blessed are the men that stand in your streets and worship
within your gates! When shall we, also, behold your fitness and drink
of the river of your pleasures?

Thus in all respects the new Jerusalem is furnished. Even with medicine
it is supplied and though we might suppose it to be no more needed, yet
it is a joy to perceive that it is there to prevent all maladies in
those whom before it has healed. Leaves for health are plentiful,
above, and therefore the inhabitant shall no more say, "I am sick." As
everything good is present, our text hints that nothing ill is there.
One of the worst ills that can happen to a man is sickness, for, if he
is suffering from disease, his gold is cold and cheerless metal. If he
is languishing, the light is dark in his tabernacle. If he pines away
with pain, he cannot enjoy his food–neither is beauty any longer fair
to him.

But there can be no sickness in Heaven because the Tree of life bestows
immortal health on all beneath its shade! Its leaves extract a balmy
influence, fostering the vigor of immortality! Sickness and suffering
are banished by this Tree of Life. "There shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for
the former things are passed away." As need is banished, as darkness is
unknown, as infirmity is shut out, as anxiety and doubt and fear and
dread are far away, so will all bodily and spiritual disease be forever
removed!

It is, in Heaven, according to our text, again, that there grows the
tree which is not only health to Heaven, but which brings healing to
the nations here below. Heaven is the abode of Jesus and Jesus is the
Tree of Life. If any man would be healed of the guilt of sin, he must
look to the eternal merits of the Lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world, who is now upon the Throne of God! If any man would be
saved from daily temptation and trial, he must look to our Advocate in
Glory who intercedes for us and pleads that, when sifted as wheat, our
faith may not fail! If any of us would be saved from spiritual death we
must look to Jesus, for He lives at the right hand of the Father–and
because He lives, we shall also live.

"He is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." I say that Jesus
Christ, my Lord and Master, is in Heaven and is there comparable to a
tree planted in the very center of the City! Under His broad shadow,
the redeemed delight to sit, and His leaves, as they are wafted down to
earth, bring health with them! If we would be healed, we must gather
those leaves and apply them to the wounds and bruises of our souls and
we shall surely recover. Look upward, then, by means of the Scripture
before us, to Heaven, and see it full of every good! See it purged of
every evil and see in it the great conduit Head, from which abundant
streams of healing flow down to men below!

II. Now let us come practically to the text IN REFERENCE TO OURSELVES
BELOW. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
There is, then, an abundance of healing power in Jesus Christ and His
salvation. Not only

is His fruit sweet and nourishing, but the leaves, the little things,
as it were, about Christ, are full of healing virtue. We will begin our
meditation upon the truth of the text by noticing that all the nations
are sick. Leaves are provided for their healing which would be
superfluous if they did not require to be healed.

We have, in our time, heard great talk about discovering pure,
unsophisticated tribes, beautiful in native innocence, untainted with
the vices of civilization. But it has turned out to be all talk.
Travelers have penetrated into the heart of Africa and they have found
these naked innocents–but they have turned out to be "hateful and
hating one another." Voyagers have landed upon lovely islets of the sea
and found unsophisticated innocents eating each other! They have gone
into the backwoods and discovered–

"The poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, and hears
Him in the wind," but they have found him cunning as a fox and cruel as
a wolf. Though Pope tells us that the true God is–

"Father all in every age, In every clime adored, By saint, by savage,
and by sage, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord,"

yet we find neither sages nor savages so worshipping unless the Gospel
has instructed them! No, the savage nations have been found so morally
sick that their customs have shocked humanity and men have turned from
them with horror! Alas, poor human nature, even apart from the many
evil inventions of civilization, your disease is terrible!

Neither have nations been delivered from the dread malady of sin by
refinement and culture. They tell us a great deal about the wonderful
perfection of the ancient Greeks and, certainly, they did understand
how to draw the human form. And for delineating physical grace and
beauty, we cannot rival their sculptors. But when we come to look at
the Greek moral form, how graceless and uncomely! The ordinary morals
of a Greek were too horrible to be described. When Paul felt it
absolutely necessary to speak of them, he was obliged to write that
terrible first chapter of Romans, which no man can read without a
blush, or close without a sigh that such an indictment was so sadly
just.

God forbid that the filthiness which the ancients tolerated should ever
be revived among us, their very sages were not clear from unmentionable
crimes! The Hindus and Chinese, those polished nations of modern times,
do they excel? Is it not a fact that India reeks with lasciviousness
which will not endure to be thought upon? Ah, Lord God, you know! All
the nations need healing, our own among them! If you doubt it, open
your eyes and ears. Do not iniquities abound? Are not profanities to be
heard in our very streets? Go to the west end and see its fashionable
sin, or to the east end and see its more open wickedness!

Or stay on this side the Thames and mark the degradation of thousands!
Overwhelming evidence will come before you to show that our nation
needs healing if you traverse the streets beneath the pale light of the
moon, or even pass the doors of those haunts of gaiety which have, of
late, been so enormously multiplied. And all individuals in every
nation need healing. It is not that some of us are sick and some whole
by nature–we are altogether fallen–and all of us born in sin! The
evil is in our nature from the very beginning and nothing within the
reach of mere man can purge away the evil, let him dream as he may!

There is but one cure for the nations–the leaves of the tree. There
grows no healing herb but the one plant of renown. There is one sacred
Fountain, to wash, therein, is health–there is but one, it was opened
on Calvary! There is one great Physician who lays His hands on men and
they are restored–there is but one! Those who pretend that their hands
can minister salvation, and that drops of water from their fingers can
bring regeneration are accursed! No, there is no balm in Gilead, there
is no physician there, the balm is at the Cross! The Physician is at
the right hand of God!

Jesus is pictured, here, as a blessed tree whose leaves heal the
nations. Now the point of the text is this, that the very leaves are
healing, from which I gather that the least thing about Christ is
healing. It is said of the blessed man in the first Psalm, "His leaf,
also, shall not wither." God takes care of the little things, the
trifles, of Believers, and here, of our Lord, it is said, "The leaves
are for the healing of the nations." That is to say, even His common
things, His lower blessings of Divine Grace are full of virtue!

Many know but very little about Jesus Christ, but if they believe on
Him, that little heals them! How very few of us know much of our Lord.
Some only know that He came into the world to save sinners. I wish that
they knew more, so that they could feed upon the fruits of the Tree of
Life. But even to know that is salvation to them, for the leaves heal
the

nations! Do you know yourself a sinner? Will you have Christ to be a
Savior? Soul, will you rely upon His precious blood to make expiation
for your sin? Then, though you have not yet reached up to the golden
apples, yet since a leaf has fallen upon you, it will save you!

The touch of His hand opened deaf ears! The spit of His lips
enlightened blind eyes! The look of His eyes softened hard hearts. The
least fragment of this Sovereign remedy has Omnipotence in it! We may
also learn that the most humble and most timid faith in Jesus Christ
will save. It is a grand thing to believe in Jesus Christ with all your
heart, soul and strength. It is delightful never to doubt, but to go
from strength to strength until you come to full assurance of
understanding. But if you cannot thus mount up with wings as eagles,
you will be saved if you come limping to Jesus! If you have but a
mustard-seed of faith, you are saved! She who in the great crowd
touched but the hem of the Savior's garment found that virtue flowed
out of Him and came to her. Pluck a leaf of this Tree by your poor
trembling faith and if you dare not take more than that, yet shall it
make you whole!

Beloved, after we have been saved from our sin by faith in Jesus
Christ, it is very wonderful how everything about Christ will help to
purge the blood, which as yet is not cleansed. Study His example and as
you look at the lovely traits of His Character–His gentleness and yet
His boldness, His consecration to our cause and His zeal for the Glory
of God– you will find, as you value His excellences, they will
exercise a curative power over you. You will be ashamed to be selfish,
you will be ashamed to be idle, you will be ashamed to be proud when
you see what Jesus was! Study Him and you will grow like He.

If we take His precepts, and I hope we prize them as highly as we do
His doctrines, there is not a command of our Lord but what possesses a
sacred power, by the application of the Holy Spirit, to cure some fault
or other of our character. Do as He bids you and you shall be made
whole! Why, there is not a Word that ever fell from those dear lips but
what bears healing in it for some one or other of the thousand ills
that have befallen our humanity! It is a sweet thing to get even a
broken text from His mouth. His least Words are better than the best of
others! Lay a Word from him, like a grain of medicine, upon your tongue
and keep it there all day–with what a flavor it fills the mouth! How
sweetly it perfumes the breath!

It is a grand thing to bind a promise round your arm–how strong it
makes each sinew! How forceful for the battle of life. It is a blessed
thing to take His cheering words, which are as fragrant as "a cluster
of camphire," and carry them in your bosom, for they chase away sadness
and inspire dauntless courage. A word of His, being His, and recognized
as His and coming home to the heart as His, brings healing to head and
heart, conscience and imagination, desire and affection! A leaf of the
Tree of Life is a medicine fitted to raise the dead! Do you not know
its power by a joyful experience? Blessed be God, some of us know it
right well, and can bear glad witness to its matchless power!

Then, too, this medicine heals all sorts of diseases. The text puts it,
"The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." It does
not say of this or that malady, but by its silence it teaches us that
the medicine is universal in its curative power. Take this medicine,
then, dear Friends, to any man, whoever he may be, and let it be
applied by the Spirit of God, and it will heal him of whatever disease
he has because the Gospel strikes at the root of all diseases. Truly it
exercises power over all the different branches of the upas tree of
evil, but it does so by laying the axe at the root, for it deals with
sin, the sin of unbelief, the sin of not loving God. No medicine can
ever heal all maladies unless it eradicates the root of the evil and
creates a fountain of health.

Now, the Gospel applied by the Spirit of God is radical. It goes to the
root of the matter, operates upon the heart and purifies the issues of
life. Human precepts and methods of morality lop the branches, but
leave the trunk of the deadly tree untouched–but this cuts the taproot
and tears away the evil growth from beneath the soil! For this cause it
is able to remove all diseases. This medicine heals disease because it
searches into the innermost nature. Some medicines are only for the
skin–others will only touch a few organs and those not vital. But the
leaves of the Gospel Tree, when taken as medicine, penetrate the mind
and search the heart. Their searching operations divide between the
joints and the marrow, and discern the thoughts and intents of the
heart.

A wondrous medicine is this! It searches the soul through and through
and never ceases its operations till it has purged the entire manhood
of every relic of sin and made it completely clean. Lord, give us these
leaves! Lord, give us these leaves continually! Create in us a clean
heart and renew a right spirit within us. "Behold, You desire truth in
the inward parts: and in the hidden part You shall make me to know
wisdom." But this can never be unless You give us to

drink of this most potent medicine! These leaves prevent the recurrence
of disease by enabling the man, from then on, to find good in all that
comes to him. A person diseased, if healed, may, by the food which he
shall afterwards receive, bring on the disease again.

Place a man under certain conditions which cause him an illness–you
may heal him–but if you lead him back to those conditions, he may soon
be ailing again. And here, in such a world as this, even if Christ
healed us today, we should be sick to death tomorrow if the medicine
had not some wondrous continuance of power. And so it is! For all
things that come to us after conversion are changed, because we are
changed. All things work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are the called according to His purpose. Have we earthly joy?
We no longer idolize it, but it now points us to God, the Giver. Have
we earthly sorrow? We dare not despair because of it, for we know who
has ordained

it!

Why should a child of God complain who knows that there is love in
every chastening stroke of his Father's rod? What we once called good
is now really good to us! What we called ill is no longer ill to us,
for the leaves of the Tree of Life are an Infallible antidote. What
would have been our poison is now our food, and what might have
destroyed us, now builds us up! This wondrous medicine abides in the
system as a source of health. "The water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life." Other
medicine taken into the system acts in its own manner and that is an
end of it, but this stays. These healing leaves change the life blood,
affect the spirits and make the nature other than it was before. Yonder
in Heaven, those faces which look so bright and comely, fresher than
new born babes, owe their freshness to these healing leaves! And so
until the Glory life begins, the abiding power of the healing leaves
keeps the soul of the Believer in perpetual health and will keep him
so, world without end!

I have shown that the leaves will heal all diseases. I will occupy a
minute with the glad Truth of God that these leaves heal whole nations.
They are suited to the peculiarities of differing nations. The Gospel
has never been carried to a people who did not need it, or whom it did
not suit. It has been found equally applicable to the ignorant
Hottentot and the subtle Hindu. No man has been found too degraded for
its operation, nor too civilized for its benefits. The Gospel has such
abundant power that it heals nations and, "nations," is a large word,
comprehending millions! But the leaves of this tree can heal countless
armies of men, and it will–

"…Never lose its power

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Are sa ved to sin no more."

It is a happy circumstance that an agent of such potency is diffusible
by the simplest means. A medicine consisting of leaves may be carried
by the apothecary where he wills–it is no cumbrous matter. So may we
carry the Gospel to the utmost ends of the earth–and we will carry it
and send it to every habitation! The winds shall waft it, the waves
shall bear it wherever man is found. These leaves are not cumbrous like
the stage properties of Popery, but are readily scattered, and wherever
they go, no climate injures them. The cold of Greenland has not been
too severe to prevent the Greenlander rejoicing in the Savior's blood!
And the heat of the torrid zone has not been too intense to prevent
Believers from rejoicing in the Sun of Righteousness. No, Beloved, the
Gospel heals nations wherever the nations may be and readily heals them
of the direst miseries and the blackest crimes.

It is the cure for poverty, by making men wise and economical. It is
the cure for slavery, teaching men to love their fellows and respect
the rights of all. It is the cure for drunkenness, weaning the drunk
from his filthy appetite, saving him from the spell which binds him.
The Gospel is the only preventive for war. We shall need no blood-red
soldiery when once the warriors of the Cross have won the day! This is
the cure for those foul evils which are the curse of our social
economies, which human laws too often increase instead of remove. This
shall purge us from every form of knavery, rebellion and discontent,
and this only. God grant that its healing influences drop upon the
nations thick as leaves in Val-lambrosa, till that golden age shall
dawn in which the world shall be the abode of moral health!

I must remind you, before I pass from this, and it is a very sweet
thing to remind you of, that this medicine is given and appointed for
the very purpose of healing. I draw your attention to this for the
comfort of any who feel their sickness this morning–"The leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nations." You look up to this Tree and
say, "I am sick at heart. I know that here is my cure, but may I dare
to partake of it?" Partake freely, for the Tree was planted on purpose
for you! In the eternal purpose and decree of God, Christ was given to
heal the nations. In actual fulfillment He has

healed nations–many nations already enjoy a partial health because
multitudes of individuals in those nations have been healed.

Great works have been done in the Isles of the Sea. When I think of
England, and of the gems of the Southern Sea, and of Madagascar, the
Lord seems to have a peculiar favor towards the isles, for in the
islands the Gospel has spread more abundantly then elsewhere–"Let the
multitude of the isles be glad thereof." The Tree is planted with
intent that its leaves should heal–you need not, then, hesitate and
enquire, "May I be healed?" It grows for the sick! Are you sick? It
grows for you! The other day I was thirsty and passed a drinking
fountain. I never paused to ask whether I might drink, for I knew it
was placed there for the thirsty, and being thirsty, I drank.

Who hesitates, for a moment, when he is in a lonely spot upon the beach
and finds that there is health in every billow, to strip himself and
plunge into the wave? Does he ask if he may? Surely God has spread the
ocean that man may bathe! If I want to breathe, being in the air, I ask
no man's liberty to breathe, nor do I sigh for God's leave, either, for
did not He give me liberty when He gave me lungs and bade the breezes
blow? Since you see Christ before you, Brothers and Sisters, take
Christ! You need not ask any man's liberty, nor pine for Divine
permission! Has He not said, "Whoever will, let him take of the water
of life freely"? He bids you receive! He commands you to believe and He
threatens you if you do not! He says to His servants–"Compel them to
come in." And as to those who refuse to come, He says, "He that
believes not shall be damned." What fuller leave or license can be
imagined?

These words to close with. Are you sick this morning? Take these leaves
freely! Are you very sick? The more the reason you should take them!
You are sinful. Past guilt troubles you–take the leaves again and
again. Worse than that, tendencies to evil afflict you. You want to be
rid of them–feed on the purging leaves as long as you live and they
will prove an antidote! You need not think that you will exhaust the
merit or power of Christ, for if the fruit is described as coming 12
times in the year, how abundant must the leaves be? There is enough in
Christ for every sin-sick sinner! If the sinner does but come to Jesus,
he shall find no stint in Jesus' healing power! Though the sick soul is
full of leprosy, the Savior is full of Grace. Put forth your finger,
Sister, and touch the hem of Jesus' garment now! Lift your eyes,
Sinner, look to Christ on the Cross! Though He seems far away from you,
there is life in a glance, however dim the eyes or distant the view.
Come to this Tree–its very leaves will heal you!

Last of all, are you healed? Well, then, scatter these leaves! Are you
saved? Speak of Jesus Christ to everybody! I wish you to teach others a
whole Christ, if you can. I desire, always, to make my ministry like
Simeon's action when he took the Redeemer altogether into his arms, and
said, "Lord, now let You Your servant depart in peace." There was a
long span of time between Simeon, with the Son of the Highest in his
arms, and the woman who touched the hem of the Master's garment–yet
both have gone to Heaven–and there is a good span of time between the
Christian who can embrace a whole Christ, and a poor timid one who can
only tremblingly hope in Him.

If you cannot tell others all about Christ, and give them the fruit of
the Tree, go and give them the leaves! And one very convenient way of
doing so is that which you may help today, by aiding the Religious
Tract Society, the friend of us all, on whose behalf I will add a word
or two. "The leaves of the tree"–that is to say, even little portions
and single pages about Christ will do good. It is a rule of the Tract
Society that every tract shall have enough of Christ in it to save a
soul if God shall bless it. Do not despise a mere leaf, or, as you say,
"a leaflet," for if Christ is in it, it is a leaf of the Tree and He
will bless it. Scatter, then, the Gospel leaflets!

Perhaps you have not the means to distribute Bibles and larger
books–cover, then, your pathway with tracts! Large portions of our
country still need wide distributions of tracts and all the world
outside our country needs the Gospel, and needs the Gospel in the
printed form. Scatter the leaves! Let them fall as thickly as leaves
descend in the last days of autumn. Scatter them everywhere, since they
are for the healing of the nations! The Tract Society, however, not
only provides us with very excellent tracts, but it brings out books
upon common subjects written in a religious tone. And this class of
literature I hope will be multiplied, because people will not always
read books on religious topics, but will read works on other
subjects–and when these are written in a religious spirit they will
exercise the most healthful influence.

These books are not exactly the fruits of the life-giving Tree, but
they are leaves, and Life is in them. I am glad to see the Society
bringing out pictures to hang on cottage walls and little illustrative
texts done in colors, and the like, for anything about Christ will do
good. It is wonderful how a little thing may save a soul, if Christ is
in it. "A verse may

strike him from whom a sermon flees," and a picture on a wall may
awaken a train of thought in a man who would not listen to that same
thought if spoken in words.

Remember Colonel Gardiner and his remarkable conversion by looking at a
picture of Christ upon the Cross. While waiting to fulfill an
engagement of the most infamous kind, he saw a picture of our dying
Lord, and under it written–"I did all this for you, what have you ever
done for Me?" The engagement was never kept and the colonel became a
brave soldier for Jesus Christ. Possibly we may not think well of
representations of the crucifixion, which is a theme beyond the
painters' art, but there can be no question that it is our duty to set
forth Christ among the people by our speech, so that he may be seen by
their mind's eye, evidently crucified among them.

Make the passing throng see the Gospel in every corner of the streets
if you can. Paste up texts of Scripture among business announcements!
Hang them up in your kitchens, in your parlors and in your drawing
rooms. I hate to see Christian men hang up abominable Popish things, as
they sometimes do, because they happen to be works of art. Burn every
one of such artful works, whether prints or paintings! I would take the
hammer and administer it with an iconoclastic zeal on all images and
pictures of saints and virgins, and the like, which do but tempt men to
idolatry!

Do not degrade your houses by anything which insults your God, but let
your adornments be such as may lead men's thoughts aright. And never
let a man say, in Hell, "I was misled by a work of art on your wall
which was also a work of the devil and suggested evil thoughts."
Everywhere bring Christ to the front and scatter His Words, like leaves
from the tree. If you cannot do more, do this and show your gratitude
to your Lord.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Rerelation 21,22:1-5. HYMNS
FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–145, 867, 539.