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O UR LORD Jesus Christ Himself tells us how each ■one of us can be fully satisfied, and satisfied forever. "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” There is a match less music in these words. I remember how, as a boy, before I had any thought of becoming a Christian myself, I would read this verse. There was to me a fascination in those words. I did not understand their meaning at all, but they seemed to me like a mar velous strain of music from some faraway, heavenly world. When I came to understand their meaning and to experience for myself the great truth they set forth, there was in them a preciousness that I cannot put into words. Our Lord Jesus had been taking a long and tire some journey on foot. He had started out in the early morning with His disciples, and they had trudged along the whole day through, apparently without any thing to eat. About sunset, they reached the outskirts of the village of Sychar. It was formerly thought that the "sixth hour” was noontime, but it was later dis covered that in Ephesus, where John wrote this Gospel, time was reckoned as it is with us today, from mid night till noon, and from noon till midnight. So “ about the sixth hour” was six o’clock in the evening. Since our Lord was as truly a real man as He was “very God of very God,” dusty, tired, hungry, thirsty, He sank upon the well-curb. The disciples had gone into a near-by town to get something to eat, but apparently He was too tired to accompany them. In a little while, Jesus looking up the road, saw a woman of evil character coming toward the well to draw water. Immediately a new thirst took possession A chapter from the book, "The Holu Spirit," by Dr. Torrey, published by Fleming II. Hevell Company, hew York, and used bu permission.
of Him—not a thirst for water—but a thirst for the salvation of that outcast woman’s soul. As soon as she approached within speaking distance, Jesus, seeking an approach to her soul, said: “Give me to drink.” Instead of letting down into the well to draw water the jug she carried, the Samaritan woman meanly and contemptuously said: “How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” Our Lord, overlooking the insult, replied: “ If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” Immediately the woman said to Him: “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?" Pointing down into that well, at which so many generations of men and cattle had slaked their thirst, Jesus replied: “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” How true is that of every earthly fountain of satis faction or joy: no matter how deeply one drinks, he soon thirsts again. Drink as deeply as you will of the fountain of wealth; drink of the fountain of worldly honor, or power; drink of the fountain of worldly pleas ure; drink of the fountain of human knowledge; you will not be satisfied for long. Yes, even drink of that most nearly divine of all human fountains, the foun tain of human love; soon you w ill thirst again. Then our Lord added those wonderful words: “Who- ’ soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;” or to translate more literally: “shall not thirst forever; but the water that I shall give him shall' be in him a well of water springing up into everlast ing life.” I would that wd might ponder those words in silence until their meaning and force take possession of our minds and hearts. Drink, and keep on drinking ct the water the Lord Jesud gives, and you will be fully and forever satisfied.
that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water
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