And so we have. spiritual" need got forth under the figure of thirst. It is a graphic enough figure. In four homelands and in treaty ports we do-not appreciate it fully, but} it would be well enough—understood in most Eastern lands, Thirst is more serious than hunger. People would die of hunger with food beside them, if they lacked drink. To be thirsty is to be! pitiable in the extreme. So is the soul apart from God. Fellowship with God is not a luxury, but prime necessity. The soul perishes without it, Man can no more live without God than anyone can live] without drink.
But there is a difference. Or] shall we say that the metaphor, like all metaphors, can only show ' one pect of the case. You cannot be thirsty without knowing it, whereas you may thave have these deep spiritual needs, of—which thirst is the figure, without understanding them, You may—mistake them for something else. And so Jesus leads His listener to recognize her spiritual eondi-"Go call thy husband."
it life was a proof that all was not well with her. The purport of the words of Jesus was something like this: Do you know why you have broken all the _conventions and lived a loose life? You were craving for fellowship with, God without understanding it; you were thirsty and did not know it. Here was no legal denunciation, but a sympathetic diagnosis. You might explain a good deal of life in that way. The feverish rush for pleasure, the eager pursuit of th are symptoms. Shall we be misunderstood if we say that many forms of vice—thieving, gambling, Sensuality—are proofs that the soul parched? Something like this would be a fairly accurate verdict to bring in in many of our law. courts: "Starving for God without knowing it," or "unconscious spiritual thirst."
'This then is the first thing in our text: Thirst, not the physical thirst of Jesus,' Who was parched after His long journey in the heat, but the satisfied craving of His listener, Limitations IL—The second thing to noticed in this text is a palliative, Van unsuccessful attempt to quench that thirst. And Jacob's well the symbol of this. Now Jesus not fail to appreciate the value of that well. It had been dug by Jacob, the common ancestor of both Jews and Samaritans, He himself had drunk of it and ft had continued to meet the physical needs of the neighbourhood during all the succeeding generations. It was indeed a val able well. But it thad its clear limitations. There were many things it could not do.
For instance it was physical and therefore could not supply spiritual needs. That seems too obvious to be stated. Yet it is just that kind of mistake we are all tempted to make. Take the programme of pleasure that half the people of Shanghai carry out. Think of your own hobbies and recreations. T have not one word to say against them. They have a value of their own; there are many things they can do for you. But being what {they are, they cannot minister to jthe spirit. They were never intended to; they belong to a different! order of things. You might as well try to nourish your soul on these, as try to slake the thirst lof the soul with the water of neob's well.
Then there was a further draw. Uack: Jacob's well was external If you desired its waters you had to "come hither to draw," And] there is nothing outside of oursalvey that can really bring us satisfaction. Going here and there will not help. External pleasures only touch the circumference of our life, the fringe of our personality. "And this is a matter
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.