Christ's offer of the spirit.
John vii. 37, 38. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scrip- ture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
OUR blessed Lord incessantly laboured for the salvation of men ; nor could their ungrateful returns at all divert him from his purpose. His life was sought, and he knew that persons were sent to ap- prehend him: yet, instead of rejecting them with abhorrence, he sought to win them by love, and im- portuned them to accept his richest blessings. Let us consider his invitation,
I. As addressed to them —
The time and manner of his invitation are worthy of notice —
[This was a day of peculiar sanctity, and of uncommon festivity a; and it seems that some customs, not required in the original institutions of the law, obtained among the Jews at that timeb. Happy to improve the opportunity, Jesus stood in the most conspicuous place, and, with an exalted voice, claimed the attention of the people ; and, despising equally the censures of the uncharitable, and the persecutions of the proud, he made them fresh overtures of mercy. While they only panted for his blood, he longed for their salvation. He pointed himself out to them as " the only fountain of living
a It was the eighth and last day of the feast of tabernacles, Lev. xxiii. 34, 36.
b It is said that on this day they went annually to the pool of Siloam, and drawing water from thence returned with it in procession to the temple, where they poured it out with all possible demonstra- tions of joy. At what time this custom arose, it is not easy to de- termine ; but probably it commenced after the Babylonish captivity ; and was adopted in reference to that prediction, Isai. xii. 3. Nor is the design of it precisely known : but it seems most likely that they then commemorated the giving of water out of the rock in the wil- derness ; and called upon God for rain, which was so necessary to them at that season. Perhaps the more spiritual among them, might pray also for those spiritual blessings, -which their promised Messiah was appointed to bestow. These circumstances served as the foun- dation of our Lord's address, and reflect much light upon it.
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waters," and assured them of his readiness to impart what- soever they stood in need of. He excepted none from his offers, provided they did but " thirst" for his blessings.]
Lest, however, his invitation should be slighted, he
enforced it with a promise —
[He first explained what he meant by " coming to him." (It was not a mere outward, but an inward and spiritual appli- cation, that he wished them to make to him.) They were to " believe in him" as possessing all fulness in himself0 : and as the person appointed of the Father to convey blessings to themd. In a full persuasion of this truth they were to come to him by faith. For their encouragement he promised them a rich effusion of his Spirit. By " living water" our Lord meant the gift of his Spirit e; and when he said, that " rivers of this living water should flow out of his belly," he intimated, that the believer should have a constant spring of consolation within him, which should refresh all who came within the sphere of his influence. Of this blessed truth the Scriptures had abundantly testified, and our Lord now confirmed it to them by a most solemn promise. He assured them, as he had before told the Samaritan woman, that his communications to them should prove a source of unutterable and endless joyf.]
In this promise he clearly shewed them that he was