“He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life” (John iv. 14).
ITH what music these wondrous words must have fallen upon the ears of that weary, sinful woman with whom the Master talked at Jacob’s well. How often had she drunk from the broken cisterns of earthly pleasure. There needed no better proof that they had failed than the fact brought out in her interview with Christ: that she had had five husbands and even now was living in open sin and, doubtless, utter misery. How thirsty she was we may judge from the way she drank when she discovered the Living Water and the haste with which she flew to tell her people of the wondrous Stranger that had these living waters to give away.
As when the water carrier passes down the train on a sultry summer day, and the sight of the cool and sparkling draught makes us thirsty before we know it, so the words of Jesus woke in her a deep sense of her utter need and she cried out, “Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”
There are two kinds of Christians. One is like the old, country well into which we had to pour water before we could get any out and then it came by fits and starts. The other class is like the artesian well that flows spontaneously from boundless depths and needs no pumps to set it free. The true Christian life is that which has the well in the heart, the Holy Spirit and the living Christ indwelling as a fountain of life and love and blessing.
Oh! What a day that was when the presence of Jehovah came down from the fiery mount and the distant cloud and took its place in their midst as the Shekinah in the bosom of that sacred tabernacle. More wonderful than this the day when Jesus comes to abide in the heart of the believer.
Speaking of it Himself, He says, “I will manifest Myself unto him, and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make our abode with him.” To such a soul heaven is no longer far away. The Throne of grace is not at some distant height to which we must painfully climb or shout our distant cry, but it is in our heart of hearts. God is “a little Sanctuary” to such souls, and we may ever find Him near, within whispering distance of our slightest prayer. Christ Himself is our life, our strength, our joy, our peace, our health, our love, our holiness, our All in All. We do not need to go to others to get blessing for we have the Blesser Himself. We do not need to wait for special seasons for like the moisture in the air which forms the dewdrops upon the surface of the pitcher whenever the conditions are fit, so the presence of God and the grace of Christ are ever at hand and bedew the soul with grace when we are rightly adjusted and open to receive the communication of His blessing. We have in the depths of our being a redundant well springing up unto everlasting life. This means that it is the beginning of heaven. It is the eternal life already flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb and it
“Flows on and forever will flow
To the land that no mortal can know.”
Texts for the Month
1. “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col. i. 27).
2. “Abide in Me and I in you” (Job xv. 4)
3. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (Eph. iii. 17).
4. “Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20).
5. “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John iv. 14).
6. “If any man open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and he with Me” (Rev. iii. 20).
7. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Ps. xci. I).
8. “1 will love him and will manifest myself to him” (John xiv. 21).
9. “My little children, for whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. iv. 19).
10. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin” (Rom. viii. 10).
11. “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (II Cor. vi. 16).
12. “He dwelleth in you and shall be in you” (John xiv. 17).
13. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into that one Spirit” (I Cor. xii. 13).
14. “Walk in the Spirit” (Gal. v. 16).
15. “I will put My Spirit within you” (Zech. xxxvi. 27).
16. “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts” (Jer. xxxi. 33).
17. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (I John iv. 4).
18. “We will come unto Him and make our abode with Him” (John xiv. 23).
19. “He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him and He in him” (I John iii. 24).
20. “Tarry ye until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke xxiv. 49).
21. “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John xx. 22).
22. “Lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away” (Isa. vi. 7).
23. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. iv. 13).
24. “Lift up your heads, oh, ye gates, and the King of Glory shall come in” (Ps. xxiv. 9).
25. “He is my God and I will prepare Him an habitation” (Exod. xv. 2).
26. “Ye are the temples of God (I Cor. iii. 16).
27. “Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house” (Luke xix. 5).
28. “Thou shalt abide for me many days (Hos. iii. 3).
29. “We know that He abideth in us by the Spirit which He hath given us” (I John iii. 24).
30. “I will be to them as a little sanctuary” (Ezek. xi. 16).
31. “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (Acts xix. 2).