^ The rendering " unto fountains of waters of life " is more literal than that of the A,V. ; still more literally we might render, " unto life's water-springs " ; the emphasis is strongly on the word " life." In chap. xxii. 1, the water of life is as a river " proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." In comparison with the passage in Isaiah (" even by the springs of water shall he guide them ") the thought has taken a more distinctly spiritual mean- ing: the middle term will be found in the teaching of Jesus; cf. John iv. 14, " The water that I shall give him shall become
^ H. C. G. Moule, In the House of the Pilgrimage, 13.
214 THE LAMB AS A SHEPHERD
in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life"; also vii. 38.1
If The Lamb will tend His people as a shepherd tends his flock (the word translated "feed" in the A.V. has this force), and will lead them to the springs of the water of life. The Twenty- third Psalm rises at once to our minds. The Lord who was David's shepherd (Ps. xxiii. 2), who was the Good Shepherd who sought and brought home the lost for whom He died (Luke xv. 4 ; John X. 11), does not forget the shepherd's work in heaven. He who made His people to drink of the brook in the way (Ps. ex. 7), who gave to those who came to Him the water which alone would quench their thirst, leads them now to the springs of the living water, and makes them drink of the river of His pleasures (Ps. xxxvi. 8). Significantly enough the springs of this living water are in the throne itself. Ezekiel saw the stream issuing forth from the Temple (Ezek. xlviii. 1), but in the city where there is no temple we are carried to the very throne of God, to find the well-spring of every gladness. In this emblem of the water we have another allusion to the Feast of Tabernacles. Among the ceremonies observed at the feast was that of draw- ing water; the priest drew a vessel of water from the brook of Siloam, and poured it out in the temple-court by the altar of burnt offering, and the people sang the words, " With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation " (Is. xii. 3). Here the Lamb, who is also the High Priest, leads His people to the springs of the water of life.^
3. Of old the Good Shepherd made His flock to lie down in green pastures ; He led them beside the still waters. These were the far-off streams, but now they have reached the well-head of all; they have come to living waters of life; and more than waters, to fountains. What a pathetic and ennobling summary of life is the old Eastern saying, " In the morning, mountains : in the evening, fountains ! " And here it is in its highest fulfilment. Think of these spirits as now far up in the heights of glory! They lie down and drink deep of the very innermost fountain, where life — God's life — pours itself, fresh and full, into their very being. This is more than even sonship, it is the life Divine that breathes and beats beneath the sonship. This is more than service, this makes the heart burn in sacrifice, and the lips break forth in song. This is more than subjection, this elevates not
* C. Anderson Scott. ' W. B. Carpenter, The Revelation, 104.
REVELATION vii. 17 215
only before but to the throne of God. It is life, fountain life, the well of life springing up in them from the Divine fountain into everlasting life. Now, indeed, they comprehend with all saints the length and the breadth, the depth and the height ; now they know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge, and are filled with all the fulness of God.
^ Dr. Schaffs old friend Godet wrote to him in 1892 a loving letter of farewell, in which he said : " God has already blessed us both, and the 103rd Psalm should be our psalm. Farewell, my dear old faithful friend. Again let me repeat to you one of the last words of Tholuck. One of his old students was visiting him and recalled that he had once said that when one was old and feeble, one must put oneself into the arms of the Good Shepherd to be brought home by Him. Tholuck looked at him without seeming to understand, and then he spoke these words, ' Ein alter muder Mann, ein guter treuer Hirte ' (An old tired man, a good faithful Shepherd). That which was true for our dear teacher is now true for us. Let us rest our tired heads and hearts, often bruised, upon the Good Shepherd. The nearer one comes to the end, the more one is inclined to look back to the beginning and that with a deep feeling of humble thanks. I have eighty years behind me ; this is goodness enough, and each new day I regard as a donum superadditum. Happy are we who are able to look peacefully behind and ahead, thanks to the blood which flowed for us and the Holy Spirit who will keep us to the end and in the communion of our glorified Brother and Saviour." ^