Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XXXII - H. C. G. Moule

Chapter ix.

living water.

The last chapter was full of thoughts of the River and the Well. Let us linger a while longer in the same region of Scriptural imagery; it is a region full “of fountains and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills.”

The words “living water” occur in two remarkable passages of St. John’s Gospel, passages widely separated in time and circumstance, but closely united in spiritual significance by this phrase, and that, too, in a way which makes the second passage the true sequel and development of the first.

In ch. iv. 14., the Lord Jesus tells the woman of Sychar that had she known the gift of God, and known Him who spoke to her, she would have asked, and He would have given living water; and that this water would have precluded all thirst for ever; and that it would prove to be, within its recipient, a fountain of water, of water not stagnant but “springing, leaping, unto eternal life.”

And in ch. vii. 38, we hear the same Voice speak of living water in a far different scene. Not seated alone with one listener by the rural well, but standing in the midst of the crowds and movement of the great day of a great Temple festival, He invites all who thirst to “come to Him, and drink.” And by this He means “to believe on Him.” And He assures His hearers that as this is done the result shall be not merely a reception of living water, but such a reception as shall be an overflow. Out of the drinker, out of the believer, “shall flow rivers of living water. And this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him should receive.”

In the occasions and contexts of each of these utterances there is indeed much to study. The very contrast, to which I have already alluded, between the extreme difference of the two sets of circumstances and the holy sameness of the Lord’s thought and tone amidst them, would alone be matter for fruitful meditation. It is full of illustration of what He was and is. It is full of example for His followers. And let us never forget that the example of Christ is, for His followers, the example of Him with whom they are vitally and indissolubly one.

But these thoughts are not my main purpose at present. Nor do I attempt even a brief comment on all the details of the two utterances themselves. I ask my reader’s attention now for only two or three main points. Let us think of the sacred Gift itself; and of its personal possession by the believer in Christ; and of its conveyance through him to others.

Point 1 to follow.