I. WATEB MUBT BID DBA WN, Cert.ainly. The wells of truth are deep and clear, but we must come hither in ono sense to draw. It is quite true that the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well said to the Saviour," Give me this water, tha.t I thirst not, neither come hither to draw," and that Jesus told her the water he should give her should be in her "a well of water springing up into everlasting life." But a.t the ea.me time, we must remember that Jesus spake a parable about" the treasure hid in a field." The ideas are both true. For the Christian there is a hidden blessedness, but it needs discovering by the Word and the Spirit of God. Every quiet meditation, every prayerful perusal of the sacred page,-this is a drawing of water out of the wells of salvation. II. WATEB WILJ, BE JOYFULLY DBAWN. Not "must be," but "will be." You cannot command "pleasure;" you ca.n "duty." You ca.n make the child or the man read Scripture, but only life within will lead them to draw water "with joy." The art-student loves to wander in the foreign galleries and to gaze upon the highest ideals of art. We listen to music so differently when we love and delight in it. And a quickened soul loves religion for its own sake. III. WATEB MUST BE DISTRIBUTED WHEN DBAWN. We ca.n "give" the cup as well as drink of the cup. It is the water that is so precious, not the wooden cup or the golden chalice that contains it. It is not new" theories" and" views" and "opinions" that are precious, but the Word of the living God, which is the pure water of life, and of which whoso drink shall live; for the written Word all leads to the living Word- Jesus Christ, the SaTiour of men. IV. THE MANY WELLS ABE FED BY ONE FOUNTAIN. History or prophecy; Gospel or Epistle; precept or· promise; the record of Paradise lost, in Genesis; or the story of Paradise regained, in the Apocalypse ;-all these are filled from the same Divine fountain. It is the Spirit that testifies of Christ; for " the testimony of Jesus '' is the theme of history and "the spiiit of prophecy," Many wells I Yes; but "all my springs are in thee."-W, M, S. Ver. 1,-Reconciliation with God, These words may have- I. A NATIONAL FULFILMENT. The Jews might have taken these words into their lips after the discomfitnre of Sennacherib, or, with fuller meaning later on, after the return from captivity and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (N eh. vi. 15, 16). Other nations, after retributive sufferings and signal deliverances or restorations, may appropriately use this reverent language. II. THEIR FULFILMENT IN THE cmcuMSTANCES OF MANY AN INDIVIDUAL LIFE. 1. There is spiritual declension. A man has been living professedly in the service of God, but his devotion has been dying down, his obedience has been growing lax, his usefulness has beei:Cdiminishing and may have come down to nothing. 2. Then comes Divine correction. God speaks to him in chastening love; he sends the affliction that is intended ·to awaken him from his half-heartedness in the service and cause of Christ. 3. Then comes conviction and amendment on his part; a return to the higher and worthier life he lived before. 4. And then the chastisement is removed. (Ps. ciii. 8, 9.) God's anger is visibly, sensibly, consciously " turned away;" the heavenly Father "comforts" him with his loving favour; and there follows: 5. The grateful and joyous aong of praise. III. 'l'HEIII FULFILMENT IN THE EXPERIENCE OF BVEBY GOOD MAN. In the case of every one who enters into the full heritage of those Messianic blessings which are the subject of prophecy in this chapter, there will be found: 1. A sense of Divine dia- pleasure; reason enough for saying, "0 Lord, thou art angry with me. 8 The word "anger" in its honourable sense is certainly referable to the Divine mind. We are not to identify the faulty irritation of which we are too often conscious with the "anger" which is here and elsewhere applied to the Supreme. That feeling, at once holy and painful, which a faithful father feels towards his son when he has done something which is shamefully wrong, is the feeling, deepened, refined, ennobled by divinity, which the heavenly Father and righteous Ruler feels toward us when we sin against him and against his holy Law. We may call it by that name which is most significant or appropriate to our own thought, but, however it may be denoted, it becomes 118 to recognize the fact, to be a_ffected and to be afflicted by the fact, that God, the holy and loving One, feels towards those who have wilfully broken his laws or who deliberatel7 922 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH,,
reject his Jvertures of mercy, a eerio\18 Divine displeasure, He1, ie pained, grieved, angry. He blames us, he condemns us, he holds us to be deserving of retribution, 2. The removal of GoJ:s wrath. Two things are needed for this: (1) repentance and (2) faith (see Act.s xx. 21); the turning of the heart, anJ. thereforo of. the life, from selfishness and sin; and the cordial acceptance of JesUB Christ as the Propitiation fo1 our sin and the Sovereign of our soul, Without these we have no right to look for th11 turning away of God's anger; with these wo may be perfectly assured of it. 3. .dn abiding sense ef the Divine favour. "Thou comfortedst me." God's 1' comfort" 11 not always simultaneous with the exercise of his mercy; there may be an intervn\ of no short duration between the act of Divine forgivrness and that blessed sense of reconcili,ition which we call" assurance of salvation" (Ps. xxxii, 1, 2, 7, 11). Let nci one despond because he does not find himself possessed of inward peace and sacredjoy as soon as his heart turns to God and to his salvation. Let such o. one continuo to ask, to seek, to trust, to hope, and in due time the light will shine into. the soul. IL does not al ways come as the lightning-flash~ne moment the blackness of darkness and the next a dazzling light-but often &a comes the returning day;. first a few stro~ks of morning, then the darkness turning into grey, then the deepening light as the hours advance, st length the full brilliancy of noon. 4. A life of songful gratitude., , •i At that day," and through all remaining days, until the n,ight of death si)all ush!lr in the endless morning of immortality, the comforted h~t will say," 0 Lord, I will praise thee. "-C. · • Ver. 2.-The greal,ness of God's goodness. We have in these words the very ex~be- rance of holy feeling. They refer us to- C