3. It is Endowment. This is the positive side of salvation. Besides escape from the penalty, besides deliverance from the tyranny of sin, there is the gift of holiness. The love of God is shed abroad in the heart. The sinner walks in newness of life. The endowment is in one word the Holy Spirit. Then the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and all the rest of the gifts of grace.
IT For thirteen years I preached to my beloved people at New- castle. I gave them upwards of two thousand sermons on salva- tion— for I never preach about anything else. I went back the other night to preach to my own folk, and as I went up the pulpit steps I was overwhelmed with the thought, not that it was difficult to find anything new to say, but with the thought that I had left so much unsaid.^
II.
The Wells of Salvation.
1. The use of water as a figure for salvation is most appro- priate. For water is not merely a refreshing luxury, it is a necessity of existence. In the East it is felt to be a necessity every day. As a consequence, in the gradual conquest of the
^ A. T. Guttery, in Christian World Pvlpit, Ixxvii. p. 69.
150 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
land of Canaan, the question of possessing and holding the wells, the places of drawing water, was of especial importance. To hold the wells was to hold the keys of the position ; it was, in fact, to subdue and hold the country.
J 2. It is appropriate, further, because in the East, however if'may be in the West, water is recognised as the gift of God. Listen to the water-seller passing through the streets of Cairo or Alexandria with his water-skins. What is his cry ? It is not " Water, water," it is " The gift of God, the gift of God."
IF Though, when in the midst of the desert and surrounded by blinding white sand-dunes, the very idea of water seems absurd, and its existence impossibly remote, yet it is often present at a distance of only a few yards underfoot. This secret reservoir — so tantalisingly close, so difficult of attainment — of what in the desert are veritably the waters of life, is a phenomenon which has always haunted the Arab imagination, and has expressed itself in all kinds of legends and quaint theories and explanations. One tradition relates, what was no doubt the case, that the earliest oases grew round springs of naturally flowing water. These in time became gradually exhausted, and on this happening the Marabouts, or priests, confronted with a danger that menaced the existence of the tribes, united in offering up solemn prayers to the Almighty for guidance. It was in answer to these prayers that the existence of the underground supply of water was revealed, and the idea of tapping it by boring wells was suggested as a direct inspiration from heaven.^
3. What, then, are the wells or springs of salvation ? Let the psalmist answer : " All my springs are in thee " (Ps. Ixxxvii. 7). But Isaiah himself is very clear. In the verse immediately before the text he says : " Behold, God is my salvation." God Himself is the well of salvation, and there is none beside. But God is infinite variety as well as inexhaustible fulness. All the springs from which salvation in any measure and in any form flows to the thirsty lips of men are in God Himself.
But, God being the true fountain of salvation, notice that Jesus Christ plainly and decisively puts Himself in the place that belongs to God : " If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." Think of the extraordinary claims involved in that invitation. Here is a man who plants Himself over against the whole of the human race, and professes that He can
^ L. March Phillips, In ihc Desert, p. 166.
ISAIAH 151
satisfy every thirst of every soul through all the ages. Every craving of heart and mind, all longings for love and wisdom, for purity and joy, for strength and guidance. He assumes to be able to slake by the gift of Himself. Moses sinned when He said, " Must we fetch water out of this rock ? " and expiated that sin by death. But his presumption was modesty compared with the unheard-of assumptions of the " meek and lowly " Christ, There is but one hypothesis by which the character of Jesus can be saved, if He ever said anything like these words — and that is that He who speaks them is God manifest in the fleshj the everlasting Son of the Father.
Isaiah refers to the Song of Moses and says, " The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song ; he also is become my salvation." Then St. Paul comes and interprets Isaiah and says, " They drank of that spiritual Eock that followed them : and that Rock was Christ."
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
" Behold, I freely give The living water ; thirsty one.
Stoop down and drink, and live " : I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream ; My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,