vases, bore it up to the temple, and poured it upon the altar; and on
the last great day of the feast, the same ceremonial went on up to a
given point; and just as the last rites of the chant of our text were
dying on the ears, there was a little stir amidst the crowd, which
parted to make way for him, and a youngish man, of mean appearance and
rustic dress, stepped forward, and there, before all the gathered
multitudes and the priests standing with their empty urns, symbol of the
impotence of their system, 'on the last day, that great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me
and drink.' Brethren, such a commentary, at such a time, from such a
commentator, may well absolve me from the necessity of enforcing the
evangelistic bearing of the words of my text. And so, then, with that
understanding of the deepest meaning of these words that we have to look
at, I ask you to take them in the simplest possible way, and to consider
three points: the Well of Salvation, the Act of Drawing the Water, the
Gladness of those that draw. 'With _joy_ shall _ye_ draw water out of
the fountains of salvation.'

Now, with regard to the first point, let me remind you to begin with,
that the idea of the word here is not that which we attach to a well,
but that which we attach to a spring. It does not describe the source of
salvation as being a mere reservoir, still less as being a created or
manufactured thing; but there lies in it the deep idea of a source from
which the water wells up by its own inward energy. Then, when we have
got that explanation, and the deep, full, pregnant meaning of the word
salvation as a thing past, a thing present, a thing future, a thing
which negatively delivers a man from all sin and sorrow, and a thing
which positively endows a man with beauty, happiness, and holiness--when
we have got that, then the question next cries aloud for answer--this
well-spring of salvation, is--what? Who? And the first answer and the