His own heart; because it is all effected by His own mighty work who has
trodden the winepress alone, and, single-handed, has wrought the
salvation of the race; and because its essence and heart is the
communication of God Himself, and the bestowing upon us the
participation in a divine nature, therefore the depth of the thought,
_God Himself_ is the well-fountain of salvation.

But there is still another step to take. If these things which I have
only just been able to glance at in the most superficial, and perhaps,
therefore, confused manner, in any measure commend themselves to your
judgments and your consciences, let me ask you to go with me one step
further, and to figure to yourselves the significance and the
strangeness of that moment to which I have already referred, when a man
stood up in the temple court, and, with distinct allusion to the whole
of the multitude of Old Testament sayings, in which God and the
communication of God's own energy were represented as being the fountain
of salvation and the salvation from the fountain, and said, 'If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me.' Why, what a thing--let us put it into
plain, vulgar English--what a thing for a man to say--'If any man
thirst.' Who art Thou that dost thus plant Thyself opposite the race,
sure that Thou hast no needs like them, but, contrariwise, canst refresh
and satiate the thirsty lips of them all? Who art Thou that dost
proclaim Thyself as sufficient for the fruition of the mind that yearns
for truth and thirsts for certitude, of the parched heart that wearies
and cracks for want of love, of the will that longs to be rightly and
lovingly commanded? Oh, dear brethren, not only the Titanic presumption
of proposing oneself as enough for a single soul, but the inconceivable
madness of proposing oneself as enough for all the race in all
generations to the end of time, except on one hypothesis, marks this
utterance of Him who has also said, 'I am meek and lowly of heart.'