The great river appropriately represented the great nation which it enriched; and the

picture of the fall of the kingdom includes the desertion of the banks of these “great
waters” by man and beast; … and also the sinking of the river itself … Such a river as the
Nile may well illustrate –
A noble life. It is a source of beauty and fertility, and therefore of enrichment, to the
land through which it runs. Itself an object of delight to the eye, it is the source of
verdure all along its banks. By its overflow, or through simple agricultural appliances, its
waters the whole district in which it flows, and makes all the difference between
barrenness and abundance. Thousands of animals drink of it and bathe in it, while the
inhabitants of town and village flock to its banks in their various necessities.
A noble human life may be all this in a higher sphere. It may add very considerably
to that spiritual worth and beauty on which Christ looks down with Divine Satisfaction.
It may be the source of all kinds of good – of health, of sustenance, of knowledge, of
wisdom, of purity, of piety; of life at its best below, of the beginning of the life eternal.
It is a constant source of blessing. As the river runs, not spasmodically, but night and
day, continually sending forth its refreshing and nourishing moisture into the land, so a
true, Christian life is incessantly and unconsciously communicating good, in many forms,
to those around it.
A life pitifully reduced. A very pitiful sight would be a river in such a state as that
here imagined (rather than foreseen). Instead of being what it once was, it is now to the
prophet’s eye a diminished stream, its waters are low … and lie far beneath its banks; and
they are such that no beast cares to drink of them; no man approaches to use them for the
purposes of human life, whether of nourishment or of cleansing. The river is useless,
worthless, abandoned to itself.
How much more pitiable is the life that has been reduced; the life that has sunk; that
moves not any longer on the higher plane of heavenly wisdom but only on the low and
muddy levels of selfishness, of covetousness, of a base indulgence; the life that has
shriveled up into a poor dirty stream, no longer reflecting the beauty that is about it or the
glory that is above it; the life that is unvisited, that no man cares to consult, by which no
virtuous man directs his own, from which no man gains any strength, or impetus, or pure
refreshment, which does no man any spiritual good; the life that is severely left alone!
The cause of its decline. If any river be thus actually reduced … it is because it is no
longer fed as it once was by the rains of heaven. If a noble human life is thus reduced, it
is because it is no longer supplied from above. It lacks the truth, the influences, the
sustaining power, which should come to it from God. These may be cut off by some
serious sin; or they may be withdrawn because we no longer keep open the channels
through which they come.
Keep the mind open to all Divine wisdom and the heart to all holy influences. Draw
down the renewing rains of Heaven by constant communion and earnest prayer. See that
no “great transgression” diverts the waters; and the river of our life will flow on to the
sea, without loss to its beauty or its power.

The Pulpit Commentary, Ezekiel II p. 181, Ezekiel 32:13-14, (W. Clarkson)

Gold Nugget 170

The River of Our Life