And there was another limi about Jacob's well: If we drink of its waters, we "thirst again." The results are not lasting. In this it is typical of every attempted secular solution of spiritual pro-Dlems, and of every worldly pleasure." This is notoriously true of unworthy satisfactions, These are like drupe; you mast repeat the dose, not only so, you must in. crease it. The pleasant intoxication does not last, Exhaustion follows and a new stimulus is demanded. But Jacob's well was a good well and so let us take it 4s typical of those things which fare not unworthy themselves, but, which are meret sures and recreations; musie, art, lectures all have a value of their} own. But in common with all the things connected with our temporal life, they perish with the using. Their results are not, and are not intended to be, permanent.
What than shall we do wi Jacob's well? Shall we close up? By no means. It has its real value. Jesus was glad enough to rest by its side and drink its refreshing waters. There is n0- 1 negative about the policy of Jesus; it is ever a plus quantity, Jesus' was not a kill joy. It is not a sin to drink of its waters. But then you will ask, why has! there been an implied criticism in all we have said about it? If it fs net a sin to drink of its waters, then what is wrong with it? Just this, it is a mistake to expect from hat it cannot give. By alli means, go to it for its true gift, but remember that that gift is limited. There are things it cannot supply. It is material;—it] is external; its results are fleeting.
IL—This leads us to think of] the Resources that Jesus offers. In contrast to Jacob's well He speaks of "the water that I shall give him.
And to start with, this supply, that Jesus offers is of the right kind, a spiritual supply for a spiritual need. That is where th mistake has 39 often been There has been a wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment. Tt has been supposed that man, who is a spirit could be satisfied with such things as material wealth, sensual pleasure, worldly ease, or the passing show. In contrast to these things Jesus offers communion with God, forgiveness of sins, a senso of reconciliation, harmony with the Divine will. On" another occasion when Jesus spoke of salvation under the figure water, an explanation is added.
is spoke He of the Spirit" Yes, that is the Divine gift: Communion between the Spirit of God and the spirit of man.
Then, unlike the water of Jacob's well, this gift is within. You have not to search for it in the heaven above nor in the earth beneath. "The water that I shall give him shall be in him."—The gift is in the innermost recesses of our being. "The word is nigh thee, ven in thy heart." As Jesus expresses it: "Ye abide in' me and in I you," a deep intermingling of life, a mystic union. Or; as Paul puts it, "Christ in you the hope of glory."
It follows that those who have drunk deeply of the water that! Jesus gives, and who have found that water becoming a well within them, never thirst. 'The supply as incessant as the need. inexhaustible. We could easily' enumerate many who by ell secular standards ought to be the objects of our pity. Think of the exile on Patmos, of Paul and Bunyan and Fox in prison, cut off
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.