timbrel and dance, not only said, 'The Lord is my strength,' but 'He
_has become_ my strength'--there where the corpses are floating yet.
What answers to that in the matter with which we are concerned?
Brethren, it is not enough to say that God is the fountain of salvation,
it is not enough to say that the Incarnate Christ is the medium of
salvation. Will you take the other step with us, and say that the Cross
of Christ is the realisation of the divine intention of salvation? Then
He, who from everlasting was the strength and song of all the strong and
the songful, _is become_ the salvation of all the lost, and the fountain
is 'opened for sin and for uncleanness.' A definite, historical act, the
manifestation of Jesus Christ, is the bringing to man of the salvation
of God. So much, then, for that first point to which I desired to ask
your attention.

And now let me say a word or two as to the second. I wish to speak about
this process of drawing from the fountain. That metaphor, without any
further explanation, might very naturally suggest more idea of human
effort than in reality belongs to it. Men have said: 'Yes; no doubt God
is the fountain of salvation; no doubt Christ is the river of salvation;
no doubt His death is the opening of the fountain for sin and for
uncleanness; but how am I to bring myself into contact and connection
with it?' And there have been all sorts of answers. Every kind of pump
has been resorted to. Go up to the Agricultural Hall and you will see no
end of contrivances for bringing water to the surface. There are not so
many there as men have found out for themselves to bring the water of
salvation to their lips, and the effect has always been the same. There
has been something wrong with the valves; the pump has not worked
properly; there has been something wrong with the crank; the pipe has
not gone down to the water; and there has been nothing but a great
jingling of empty buckets, and aching and wearied elbows, and what the