instruction, no inconsiderable portion of his wisdom consists.

Of this, as of every other exercise of Christian charity, the life of our blessed Saviour exhibits the brightest pattern. The same compassionate love for perishing sinners, which brought him down from heaven, continued pre-eminently to display itself during his residence on earth. While he went about, healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease, among the people, he forgat not their disordered souls. These were the objects of his unceasing and tenderest solicitude. It was the spiritual ignorance of his hearers which excited his compassion. It was their spiritual obduracy which moved his grief. It was their spiritual improvement to which his attention was ever alive, and to which all his discourses were uniformly directed. We meet with a striking instance to this effect in the text, and in the passage connected with it..

In the course of his ministry, our Lord coming to Sychar, a city of Samaria, sat down by the side of a well. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water, Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it, that thou being a Jew asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? Jesus, without noticing the impropriety of her conduct, mildly answered in the

words of my text: If thou knewest the Gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

This reply was clearly dictated by a regard to her spiritual good. Its direct tendency was to rouse her attention to the concerns of her soul, and to an improvement of the glorious opportunity now vouchsafed to her. Had she been sensible of the distinguishing privilege which at this moment she enjoyed; had she been apprised of the power and grace of the person with whom she was conversing; had she felt her own need of that inestimable blessing, which he was both able and willing to bestow upon her; far from wasting the precious moments, she would have been earnestly praying to him for an interest in his favour, and for a supply of her wants. Nor would her prayers have been ineffectual. In answer to her entreaties, he would have given to her living water. Living water was the blessing of which she stood most in need: the Gift, which he was ready to bestow on her.

What then is living water? Though the expression be evidently figurative, yet we have no difficulty in ascertaining its true meaning. That by living water the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit are signified, we have direct testimony from a subsequent passage in this

Gospel. For Christ having affirmed, he that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; it is expressly added by the evangelist, but this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive*.

It was the usual practice of our Lord, not only to inculcate and explain divine truths by allusions to sensible and familiar objects, but also to borrow his illustrations from the particular circumstances or conversation in which he happened to be engaged. Thus, on the present occasion, his discourse with the woman of Samaria naturally led him to speak of the Holy Spirit under the image of water. Nor could any image have been selected more significant or proper. The purifying, refreshing, and fertilizing qualities of water, afford very apt and striking emblems of the sanctifying operations of the Spirit of God. And the frequent use which the prophets had made of this illustration, stamps our Lord's adoption of it with a peculiar propriety. We find Zechariah and Isaiah thus predicting the copious effusion of the Spirit under the Gospel. It shall be in that day, that living water shall go out of Jerusalem. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground,

John, vii, 38, 39,

I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring*

These passages, with many others which might be adduced, fully justify the interpretation adopted above. The blessing of which the woman stood in need, the Gift which Jesus was able to bestow, and professed himself ready to bestow at her request, was the Holy Ghost. This was the living water of which he spake.

From the text thus explained, I proceed to deduce some observations for general use and application.

I. We may observe that the Holy Ghost is the Gift of God. It is so styled by way of distinction and pre-eminence. Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, und cometh down from the Father of lights. Every blessing which we receive from God is a gift, wholly umerited, freely bestowed, without money and without price. But the communication of the enlightening and sanctifying influences of the Spirit is a blessing, which, from its vast importance, claims to itself in a peculiar manner the title of the Gift of God. It is that Gift which virtually comprehends every other blessing. It is that Gift, without which, every other blessing would be useless and un

* Zech. xiv, 8. Isaiah, xliv. 3.

satisfying. It is that Gift, the attainment of which, our Lord assured his disciples, would not only compensate for the loss of his own personal presence, but would render his departure even expedient and desirable. It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you*. It is that Gift, without the addition of which, even the unspeakable gift of a Saviour had been vouchsafed in vain. It is through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, in conjunction with the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, that our redemption is completed. To what purpose had the Son of God poured out his precious blood upon the cross, had not the Spirit been imparted to discover to us our need of his sacrifice, and to apply his atoning blood with efficacy to our consciences? To what purpose had the glad tidings of salvation been published in all the world, had not the dispensation of the Spirit been annexed to the ministry of the word? The natural man, unenlightened by the Spirit of truth, would never have discovered the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned‡. Being yet in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity, he would never have cordially submitted to the holy and humbling doctrines of the Gospel.

* John, xvi. 3. † 1. Peter, i. 2. ‡ 1 Cor. ii. 14.