In him that drank it "a well of water springing up into ever- lasting life." (John iv. 14.) The full meaning of the promise is that every believer in Christ shall receive abundant satisfac- tion of his own spiritual wants ; and not only that, but shall also become a source of blessing to others. From him instru- mentally, by his word, work, and example, waters of life shall flow forth to the everlasting benefit of his fellow-men. He shall have enough for himself, and shall be a blessing to others. The imagery of the figure used is still kept up, and " his belly " must stand for " his inner man." His heart being filled with Christ's gifts shall overflow to others, and having received much, shall give and impart much.
The passages to which our Lord referred, and the substance of which He gives, are probably Isai. xii. 3; xxxv. G, 7; xli. 18; xliv. 3; lv. 1; lviii. 11; Zech. xiv. 8, 16. Of these passages our Lord gives the general sense, but not the precise words. This is the view of Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Cocceius, Diodati,Lampe, and Scott. It is a curious, confirmatory fact, that the Arabic and Syriac versions of the text both have the expression " Scripture" in the plural, "As the Scriptures have said."
It is a curious fact which Bengel mentions, that the 14th chapter of Zechariah was read in public in the temple, on the first day of the feast of tabernacles. If this is correct we can hardly doubt that our Lord must have had this in mind when He used the expression, '* As the Scripture hath said." It is as though He said, " As you have heard, for instance, during this very feast, from the book of your prophet Zecha- riah."
That almost every believer, whose life is spared after he believes, becomes a fountain of blessing and good to others, is a simple matter of fact, which needs no illustration. A truly converted man always desires the conversion of others, and labours to promote it. Even the thief on the cross, short as his life was after he repented, cared for his brother thief; and from the words he spoke have flowed " rivers of living water" over this sinful world for more than eighteen hundred years. He alone has been a fountain of blessing.
Bloomfield quotes a Rabbinical sentence, — "When a man turns to the Lord, he is like a fountain filled with living water, and rivers flow from him to men of all nations and tribes."
The favourite notion of some, that our Lord in this place only referred to the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, to be given on the day of Pentecost, is an idea that does not commend itself to me at all. The thing before us is a thing promised to every believer. — But the miraculous gifts were certaiuly not bestowed on every believer. Thousands were evideutly con- rerted through the Apostles' preaching who did not receive these gifts. Yet all received the Holy Ghost.