So out of sorrow came joy and out of the greatest trouble of his life.

There came to him the hope and consolation of God’s love.

Here then is the one source and spring of this river of life.

It is the everlasting love of the father in giving his dear son for our sakes.

It was the saying of a dying believer and the last word I ever heard him utter.

How wonderful is the love of God in giving his son for us.

How wonderful is the love of Jesus in giving himself for us.

Oh, receive this love in simple confiding faith.

Welcome this wondrous love that can fill your life with hope and gladness.

As a little child, take in the sweet messages that tell of his love.

and let neither unbelief nor life’s cares nor business duties nor the world’s enticements shut up your heart against its blessed influence.

The spirit of God is ready to teach you and to make you know the love of the father and the son in all its reality and power.

We are in the presence of a vast crowd and we hear cries of murmuring and anger.

It is a story of the desert wanderings of Israel and the people have come to Refodm where there is no water for them to drink.

They have forgotten past deliverances, the plagues of Egypt, the mighty overthrow of their enemies in the Red Sea, the healing of the waters of Mara, and now they believe not in God’s help and are full of rage against his faithful servant Moses.

They chide with him and are almost ready to stone him.

They lay it to his charge that he has brought them up out of Egypt, and that he will kill them and their cattle with thirst.

In his distress, Moses turns to the Lord and puts the whole matter into his hand.

Soon comes the promise of help, for no man ever seeks his face in vain.

The Lord himself will stand by his servant on the rock in Harb.

He is bidden to take the rod with which he had smitten the river.

In smiting the rock, water shall flow forth.

Thus again mercy conquered.

When the sin of the people might justly have exposed them to God’s wrath, he opens wide his hand and supplies all their needs.

The rock is smitten and streams of water burst forth.

The thirsty multitude drink and are refreshed, and from that rock flows a river that henceforth tracks their footsteps through many a dreary stage of their wilderness journey.

Another proof is given them of God’s patience and longsuffering.

Truly is he merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.

In the coming centuries of Israel’s history, ever was this day remembered as one calling for gratitude and praise.

He split the rock in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths.

He brought streams also out of the rock.

Hampton caused waters to run down like rivers.

Psalm 88:15-16.

1500 years have passed and we see another crowd.

It was the joyous feast of tabernacles and the last and greatest day of all.

Great was the joy, loud the cheerful shoutings of the multitudes at the solemn moment when the priest brought forth in golden vessels.

The water from the pool of Saleom and poured upon the altar.

Then trumpets were sounded and the words of the prophet were sung, “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.

” So great was the joy that it used to be said.

Whoever had not witnessed it had never seen joy at all.

Then a voice was heard which was to reach the very ends of the earth.

He who came to redeem and save proclaims himself to be the wellspring of all true joy.

He speaks to every weary longing heart.

He gives a promise of other water than that which had flowed in Horeb or that which had just been poured forth on the altar.

Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.

He who believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

” John 7:37:38.

Blessed words, words of life and hope for every man.

They reach to every land.

They call to every soul that needs peace and consolation.

We know not who in that crowd heard and received the message.

Was it some among the officers who marveled at his words? Was it some stricken guilty one whose conscience was awakened and who was craving some balm of healing, some hope of pardon? Was it even one of the priests or Pharisees who in later days joined the company of Christ’s disciples? We know not.

But this we know.

And the voice still speaks to us out of the book of God.

An everlasting salvation and unchanging satisfaction is the portion of all who humbly believe and obey.

The word of God is a glorious circle coming back in some sense to the place from which it starts.

It begins in paradise and shows to us man created in the image of God.

It tells of the fall and traces the downward course of man’s increasing iniquity.

It tells of the flood by which God manifested his sore displeasure against sin.

It goes on to reveal the bitter fruits of rebellion and disobedience experienced age after age.

It also speaks of that goodly fellowship of the prophets whom God raised up to warn men against sin and to call them to a nobler life.

At length we read of the great redeemer who came to destroy the works of the devil and to bring in everlasting righteousness.

Carrying us through the conflicts of the early church.

It leaves the child of God at last in the celestial city where a father’s hand wipes away the tear from every eye and where there is no more crying nor pain nor sorrow nor death.

And it is interesting to notice how the images of the first book appear again in the last.

In both you have the tree of life, the source of perpetual vigor and health to those who partake of it.

In both you have reference to a river giving forth its abundant streams to water the earth and from which the thirsty may drink and be refreshed.

A fact named in Genesis as to the river which flowed from Eden may suggest a useful lesson from its original spring.

It had its four divisions and these four rivers had their separate names.

The river Pichon compassed the land of Havala, and Guihan compassed the whole land of Ethiopia, while Tigris went forth to the east of Assyria, and the great river Euphrates watered the plains of Mesopotamia.

Thus, we may be reminded that the river of God goes forth into all regions, and its life-giving streams reach every quarter of the globe.

It is alike suited for all the families of the earth.

It meets the need of Jew and Gentile, of the civilized European and the wild savage of the prairie.

It is the common heritage of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues.

And if from time to time those are discovered in far off lands who seem ignorant of the very least elements of truth, yet the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, tasting of the waters of this river of life, their eyes are enlightened to see those things which belong to their eternal peace.

Some years ago, a tribe of wild men from the hills of Travenor, clothed in the leaves of their native forest, came to seek instruction from a missionary of the church missionary society.

They were very ignorant.

They seemed scarcely to know that there was a supreme being.

But the servant of Christ taught them out of the word.

Our father in heaven was his first lesson.

And from that stepping stone he led them onwards as they were able to bear it until at length he was able to baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.

Let us learn our privilege and our bound in duty.

We must leave none without the knowledge of Christ.

We must carry everywhere the good news of salvation, first drinking ourselves of the living water.

We must then call on men everywhere to share the same rich blessing.

We must give our warmest sympathies, our money, our prayers, our influence, and if God call us to it, our personal service in the great mission field of the world.

We must obey the Savior’s own command.

Just before he left our earth, as he beheld its hills and valleys, its open plains and crowded cities, he spoke the word which ought never to be forgotten.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

 

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