Water.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 40, No. 9, September 1901.
How useful and how abundant water is! We cannot live without it, and our Creator has arranged to provide the greater part of the land surface with a sufficient supply of it to support animal and vegetable life. The spiritual blessings that flow out to the people of God, his grace and mercy in their salvation, are frequently spoken of in his word as Water.Water is so necessary! We must have it in continual supply or perish. So it is with the blessings of the Spirit. God's children would perish without them. It was David's great need of the Lord's presence and blessings that made him cry out, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Psalms 42:1. The comparison here used by the Psalmist is one of the most expressive that can be imagined. As the hart, or deer, wearied by being chased, overcome by heat, and almost ready to faint and die, pants to quench his thirst at the water brooks, so David longed and mourned for the presence and favor of the Lord, and the return of those sweet pleasures he had enjoyed in communion with him. The Lord says by the pen of Isaiah, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, then I the Lord will hear them." There is no state more distressing, perhaps, than to be in such need of water that the tongue fails. To be in this state is to be poor and needy indeed, especially when there is no water. But God promises to hear such, and further says, "I the Lord will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places (places most unexpected), and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." Isaiah 41:18. This is God's promise to those who feel their poverty and need as David did. This promise will never fail of fulfillment, for it is God's promise. He can bring water from the flinty rock, and open rivers in high places.
"When Egypt's king God's chosen tribes pursued,
In crystal walls the flowing waters stood:
When through the desert wild they made their way,
The rock relented and poured forth a sea.
What limits can Almighty Goodness know,
When seas can harden and when rocks can flow?"
Water is so plentiful! Three-fourths of the earth's surface is water. Evaporation lifts it up in abundance and the winds carry it over the land, where it falls in such quantities that springs issue forth, tiny streams are formed, and large rivers incessantly flow. So with the Lord's grace and mercy. John said, "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life." Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Praise God for the perpetual supply furnished from the inexhaustible reservoir.
When Isaiah speaks of there being none, in the passage quoted above, he means that the "poor and needy" can find none in nature's field. They are not able to procure it for themselves. God only can supply. In time of great drought, when streams dry up, wells and springs fail, vegetation wilts, and people are distressed, there is just as much water on the earth as there ever was. The only trouble is that it is not furnished to the locality of the drought. How helpless and dependent are the inhabitants of that locality! It is so with the "poor and needy" when there is no water. But God says, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew: as the small rain upon the tender herbs, and the showers upon the grass." We often think of the abundance of God's grace when we look upon a stream. A few days since we held services, in connection with our precious brother, Elder T. S. Dalton, at the "Cool Spring." This spring sends forth ice cold water from the foot of a spur of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As we drank at the flowing fountain, and looked at the rippling stream that courses its way over the stones and among the thick foliage, we thought of the perpetual supply of rich, refreshing, spiritual blessings that are furnished to the dear children of God. How refreshing to drink at that stream of love, and how free is the draught! The thirst of the weary pilgrim is quenched without money and without price. If such be the stream here, what must the fountain be, where saints and angels draw their bliss directly and perpetually from the Lord.
J. R. D.
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