Jacob’s Well

“The water which I shall we.” John iv. 14.

TTERE Is a contrast between the water at the bottom of Jacob’s well, and the living water which Jesus gives, and these waters are, of course, symbols of spiritual verities. As for the ‘’ living water,” we may with the help of John viii. 38, 39, surely interpret that it stands for the indwelling Holy Spirit, ‘’ But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well (literally, fountain) of water springing up into eternal life.”

Jacob’s well out of which the water must be drawn laboriously, and a little at a time, stands over against this upspringing fulness and vigor of life. What does it mean? It means the law; it means legal

Living
water.

John iv.
14, R.V.

Grace, not
works.

yo yoom in tfje inn

Eph. iv. 30,
31.

I Thess. V.
19.

Gal. V. 22,
23.

righteousness. But that, you say, is a theological answer; what in the terms of modern religious life does Jacob’s well mean? It means ‘*’ building “character, painfully adding a brick of uprighteousness to a brick of prayerfulness, and so on. That so the heavenly character comes, is the root error of modern ethics. It is going back to Jacob’s well. Real Christian character is the overflow of the upspringing fountain. When we keep the inlet clear, (‘’ Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption, let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice “) and the outlet open, (‘* Quench not the Spirit,”) then ^’ character “will result. For Christian character is the possession of nine graces, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And anb 0itt Snterpretationsf these cannot be “built,” they are a nine-fold “fruit.”