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22 eastward when we look to Him. The garden was, therefore, said to be planted eastward in Eden, because the religion of those people all centered in the Lord. Their love, their innocence, their joy and gladness were recognized as from the Lord, were rejoiced in as the Lord's, were manifested as the Lord's life flowing through them. The garden, therefore—their spiritual wisdom and intelligence—was planted in Eden, their love and spiritual joy, eastward, in the full consciousness of their possessing both from the Lord and in his presence. "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food."

Our Lord very often, when on earth, likened the ground to the mind. It is another sacred symbol. When He likened himself to a sower sowing the seeds of Gospel truth, the shallow soil was the shallow mind, the stony ground was the callous mind impervious to spiritual ideas, the good ground was the fruitful mind. The ground here out of which the trees grew, was the ground of the mind. The trees are the mind's perceptions. Sometimes this word is used for the man himself or the mind itself; but it really means the mind's religious perceptions. "Every tree that bringeth forth good fruit" of which our Lord spake, means not only every man or every mind, but specifically every