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.

'Tis for the city man is wrought upon,

Therefore regenerated and transformed

To purest gold, to pearls and precious stones,

As Christ's own Body, to Himself conformed.

Within the garden also was a bride,

Who was to Adam as his counterpart;

Lastly, the city is itself the bride

As Christ's own fulness, precious to His heart.

The city is God's building work replete,

A composition of the justified;

A habitation it affords to God

And is to Christ His own beloved bride.

'Tis God's expression, ultimate and full,

Corporate and universal, marvelous;

God's glory it completely manifests,

And is Christ's counterpart most glorious.