2. Next, it always satisfies. Whosoever drinketh of the water which I shall give him, shall never thirst. No craving void ensues, no restless desire is left to harass and disturb. It brings with it, and sheds over the soul, a calm, a satisfying comfort, which nothing else can give, and which only those who have enjoyed it can understand.

3. And, thirdly, it has an object and an end to which nothing earthly can be compared. It springeth up into everlasting life. It proceeds in a course which is to lead to that inestimable and inconceivable blessing.

And in this view, how justly may the Spirit which Jesus communicates be described as a spring of living water. Consider such a spring. It has its source in the rain and dews which God has provided to water the earth and make it fruitful. And the living water which Christ affords, proceeds from God. He so loved the world that he sent his only Son to be the author of salvation.

The spring, small commonly at its source, gains strength as it flows along. So the Spirit in the heart may at first be as a drop, to which other and fresh drops are continually added, till it becomes a clear and sparkling stream.

It

The spring, too, proceeding from its perennial source, and flowing onward, purifies its channel as it runs. carries down before it whatever is muddy and impure and would impede its current, and what remains is clear and beautiful. Such likewise is the effect of the Spirit of Christ upon the soul. It meets at first with much that is of an uncongenial nature, much that

would sully and corrupt it. But this it gradually clears away. The "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and whatsoever is not of the Father but of the world"-these it carries off, and suffers not to rest and choke the stream. Nothing remains but the purer properties of the renewed heart, temperance, and patience, and godliness, and meekness, and charity. These are seen to shine beneath the flowing water, and reflect that "Sun of righteousness," from which their beauty is derived.

As a last point of resemblance, I observe that the stream still runs. It does not stagnate. It seems to have an object, from which it will not be long diverted; it cannot be stopped or restrained. It seeks the wide river, or the still wider ocean, in which it is to be received at last. Such too is the living water of the Spirit. It is in the heart a well of water springing up into everlasting life. For this it was given: and for this it flows, and will flow on until the end come. When it first began, this was the object at which it aimed; and this it keeps constantly in view till that object is reached. It turns aside whatever would impede its course and it gathers strength as it continues to flow. Christ, its author, gives fresh supplies from his fulness; gives "grace for grace;" till at last he receives the soul, renewed and purified, into a sea which knows no storms. There it shall glide on through all eternity, in undisturbed peace and in unsullied purity.

Just cause were there to say, If thou knewest the gift of God-thou wouldest have asked of him, and he

would have given thee living water. As was proved, in the first instance, by the apostles. They had "known the gift of God;" had been led to Jesus; had drunk of his words; had received his doctrine; were in due time filled with his Spirit: and not only were their own hearts purified and cleansed from their natural corruption, but truths flowed from them which were as a living spring of water to mankind, as "floods upon a dry ground." Before his Holy Spirit was shed upon them, they were themselves as "a dry ground where no water is: " parched and barren in their own hearts, and affording little benefit to others. But when "they were filled with the Holy Ghost, they spake the word of God with boldness: "2 The waters of salvation flowed freely from their mouths: and "daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." And those again, who had learnt from them, when they were scattered abroad, and permitted to remain no longer at Jerusalem, "went everywhere preaching the word." And that word which they preached, had the effect which water has upon the sinking frame or upon the barren ground. It comforted the drooping heart, and "revived the spirit of the contrite ones." It made "the wilderness blossom as a rose," and "be like a watered garden." The heathen, hitherto barren and unprofitable, became abundant in the fruits of righteousness. Instead of the works of the flesh, the fruits of the Spirit appeared: "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.'

2 Acts iv. 31.

4 Acts viii. 4.

4

3 Acts v. 42.

5 Gal. v. 22.

And such will always be the effect of the Spirit which they who believe in Jesus shall receive. It shall be in themselves a well of water, "springing up into everlasting life." And it shall not be confined within themselves; but run over and communicate its blessings. As the influence of evil is unhappily diffusive, so, no less, is the influence of good: and the running stream does not more surely indicate its progress by the fertility which adorns its banks, than the zealous Christian sheds around him the effects of that Spirit by which his heart is filled, and his practice animated. Rivers of living water flow to others, out of the abundance of his own heart, out of the fulness which the Lord gives: and which shows, that not to the apostles only, but to the men of every age, He is a fountain of life, from which refreshment, and strength, and health, and salvation, are continually supplied to every one that believeth.

LII.

PRACTICAL UNBELIEF.

HEBREWS iii. 12-14.

12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of

sin.

14. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.

Ir is important to inquire into the state of those persons to whom St. Paul addresses his exhortation, and the whole argument which follows. We must see what he means by unbelief, and who they are whom he warns against it. He is not writing to those, who are called in the Acts of the Apostles, "the unbelieving Jews:" those who, like himself in his early career, denied that Jesus was the expected Messiah. His epistle is to the "Jews that believed ;" i. e. who had been brought to acknowledge that "God had made that same Jesus whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ."

The unbelief, therefore, which he fears, is the unbelief of practice, in departing from the living God: the denying him in works, though in profession acknow