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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 2
hearts thrilled with a strange awe, and many were ready to exclaim,
with the woman of Samaria, “Give me of this water, that I thirst not.”
The words of the Divine Teacher presented his gospel in a most
impressive figure. More than eighteen hundred years have passed since
the lips of Jesus pronounced those words in the hearing of thousands
of thirsty souls; but they are as comforting and cheering to our hearts
today, and as full of hope, as to those who accepted them in the Jewish
temple. Jesus knew the wants of the human soul. Hollow pomp,
riches and honor, cannot satisfy the heart. “If any man thirst, let
him come unto me.” The rich, the poor, the high, the low, are alike
welcomed. He promises to relieve the burdened mind, to comfort the
sorrowing, and give hope to the despondent. Many of those who heard
Jesus were mourners over disappointed hopes, some were nourishing
a secret grief, some were seeking to satisfy the restless longing of the
soul with the things of this world and the praise of men; but when
all this was gained, they found that they had toiled to reach only a
broken cistern, from which they could not quench their fever thirst.
Amid all the glitter of the joyous scene they stood, dissatisfied and
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sad. That sudden cry, “If any man thirst—” startles them from their
sorrowful meditation, and as they listen to the words that follow, their
minds kindle with a new hope. They look upon the Lifegiver standing
in majesty before them, divinity flashing through his humanity, and
revealing his heavenly power in words that thrill their hearts.
The cry of Christ to the thirsty soul is still going forth. It appeals
to us with even greater power than to those who heard it in the temple
on that last day of the feast. The weary and exhausted ones are offered
the refreshing draught of eternal life. Jesus invites them to rest in him.
He will take their burdens. He will give them peace. Centuries before
the advent of Christ, Isaiah described him as a “hiding-place from the
wind,” a “covert from the tempest,” as “the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land.” All who come to Christ receive his love in their hearts,
which is the water that springs up unto everlasting life. Those who
receive it impart it in turn to others, in good works, in right examples,
and in Christian counsel.
The day was over, and the Pharisees and rulers waited impatiently
for a report from the officers whom they had set upon the track of
Jesus, in order to arrest him. But their emissaries return without him.
They are angrily asked, “Why have ye not brought him?” The officers,