1  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.

 2  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.

 3  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.

 4  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.

 5  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.

 6  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.

 7  '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.

 8  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.

 9  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.

 10  'Tis God's expression, ultimate and full,

    Corporate and universal, marvelous;

    God's glory it completely manifests,

    And is Christ's counterpart most glorious.