1 J. Brierley, The Secret of Living ^ 41.
* John Ker, Thoughts for Heart and Life, 215.
REVELATION xxii. 17 4^3
we should all go away with feet like hinds' feet. And these are just the gifts to be found in Christ. " Let him come unto me and drink." We should find pardon ; " in whom we have the forgive- ness of sins." We should find purity ; " He hath washed us from our sins in his own blood." We should find peace ; " My peace I give unto you." He is the fountain of these secrets of blessed- ness. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." ^
^ The words " Water of Life " have a spiritual and mystic meaning. The East — and indeed the West likewise — was haunted by dreams of a Water of Life, a Fount of Perpetual Youth, a Cup of Immortality. How could that in man which ought not to die be kept alive? how strengthened and refreshed into perpetual youth ? And water — with its life-giving and refreshing powers, often with medicinal properties seemingly miraculous — what better symbol could be found for that which would keep off death ? Perhaps there was some reality which answered the symbol, some actual Cup of Immortality, some actual Fount of Youth. But who could attain to them ? Surely the gods hid their own special treasure from the grasp of man. Surely that Water of Life was to be sought for far away, amid trackless mountain-peaks, guarded by dragons and demons. For the old legends and dreams, in whatsoever they differed, agreed at least in this, that the Water of Life was far away ; infinitely difficult to reach ; the prize only of some extraordinary favourite of fortune, or of some being of superhuman energy and endurance. The gods grudged life to mortals, as they grudged them joy and all good things. That God should say Come ; that the Water of Life could be a gift, a grace, a boon of free generosity and perfect condescension, never entered into their minds. That the God of gods, the Maker of the universe, should say, " Come, and drink freely " ; that He should stoop from heaven to bring life and immortality to light — to tell men what the Water of Life was, and where it was, and how to attain it ; much more, that that God should stoop to become incarnate, and suffer and die on the cross, that He might purchase the Water of Life, not for a favoured few, but for all mankind ; that He should offer it to all, without condition, stint, or drawback ; — this, this» never entered into their wildest dreams.^
ii. The Invitation to the Willing^.
1. Behind the thirsty there is yet this other class who are in- vited to come — those who are willing. Willingness to receive the
* J. H. Jowett. 2 c. Kingsley, The Water of Life, 6.
COME
truth may exist where as yet there is no thirst for it, and such wilUngness is of God, and a first step towards eternal life.
•[[ However little chance we may seem to have of doing anything, we can at least determine to he something ; not to let our life be filled, like some base vessel, with the offscourings and rinsings of other spirits, but to remember that the water of life is given freely to all who come. That is the worst of our dull view of the great Gospel of Christ. We think — I do not say this profanely but seriously — of that water of life as a series of pro- positions like the Athanasian Creed !
Christ meant something very different by the water of life. He meant that the soul that was athirst could receive a draught of a spring of cool refreshment and living joy. He did not mean a set of doctrines; doctrines are to life what parchments and title-deeds are to an estate with woods and waters, fields and gardens, houses and cottages, and live people moving to and fro. It is of no use to possess the title-deed if one does not visit one's estate. Doctrines are an attempt to state, in bare and precise language, ideas and thoughts dear and fresh to the heart. It is in quaUties, hopes and affections that we live ; and if our eyes are opened, we can see, as my friend dreamed he saw, the surface of the hard rock full of moving points, and shimmering with threads of swift life, when the sun has fallen from the height, and the wind comes cool across the moor from the open gates of the evening.!
2. This seems to include everyone. But it does not. It ex- cludes a great many persons. " Whosoever willy let him take the water of life freely." The Bible invitation turns on the human will. It invites every man that chooses, but there it stops. The Bible rests on the assumption that every man, if he enters into life, must enter into it by his own free choice.
^ God pays His child no finer compliment than when He trusts him with his destiny. There must be something inex- pressibly great in man to merit this surpassing confidence. True, God was held by the alternative of making a race of automatons or a race endowed with choice ; and He made the latter. It was counted that such a creature was worth all the cost of pain and woe, of evil and despair ; worth the cost of Calvary. But God leaves us not alone : a highway of truth is blazed by revelation, sweet voices counsel us to walk thereon, an inner Spirit offers holy motive, and a Saviour takes the thrust of an avenging sword.