'Come, and drink freely;' that He should stoop from heaven to bring
life and immortality to light,--to tell men what the Water of Life
was, and where it was, and how to attain it; much more, that that God
should stoop to become incarnate, and suffer and die on the cross,
that He might purchase the Water of Life, not for a favoured few, but
for all mankind; that He should offer it to all, without condition,
stint, or drawback;--this, this, never entered into their wildest
dreams.

And yet, when the strange news was told, it looked so probable,
although so strange, to thousands who had seemed mere profligates or
outcasts; it agreed so fully with the deepest voices of their own
hearts,--with their thirst for a nobler, purer, more enduring Life,--
with their highest idea of what a perfect God should be, if He meant
to show His perfect goodness; it seemed at once so human and humane,
and yet so superhuman and divine;--that they accepted it
unhesitatingly, as a voice from God Himself, a revelation of the
Eternal Author of the universe; as, God grant you may accept it this
day.

And what is Life? And what is the Water of Life?

What are they indeed, my friends? You will find many answers to that
question, in this, as in all ages: but the one which Scripture gives
is this. Life is none other, according to the Scripture, than God
Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord, who bestows on man His own Spirit, to
form in him His own character, which is the character of God.

He is The one Eternal Life; and it has been manifested in human form,
that human beings might copy it; and behold, it was full of grace and