The Transformed Rock

“The God of Jacob, which turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” Psaim exiv. 7, 8.

Wuxo would suspect that a rock might be the home of a pool? Who would dream that waters were hiding behind a waste of flint? One expects to find a pool in green pastures where the cattle quench their thirst at noon. One would look for the spring in the shady wood, and there, in the home of the tender moss and fern, we should hope to see the fountain flowing. But there is no such familiar association in the figure of speech which is used by the Psalmist. It is the unlikely thing that happens. God has His pool in the hard rock. He makes the flint the slave of the fountain.

We never know, therefore, just where God is hiding His waters. His deserts are often disguised gardens. He hides His wealth in the seeming waste. We have some very grim phrases in which the desert appears. ‘* Hard circumstances!” ‘‘ A hard task!” ‘* Having a hard time!” All these phrases are suggestive of rock and flint. But the word of the Psalmist gives the assurance that the hard experiences may veil treasures of grace richer than we have ever known before. The rock may disclose unforgettable pools. The flint may give us the surprise of a fountain. Sometimes we are able to trace gracious issues in life to hard experiences. For instance, we know that easy circumstances are not the home of the finest fountains. It is in the place of difficulty that we find vitality. Think of those dry, hard problems in Euclid with which we grappled at school! When we mastered them we had found more than geometrical solutions, we had found a fountain of mental vitality. And sometimes we have seen the issues in higher realms. We had hard circumstances in our student days. Another man had easy circumstances. But it was the hardship that held the spring of life. And so it will be with other hard things which at present are only oppressive. If we only knew it, as some day we shall, God is even now turning the hard rock into a pool, and the flint into a fountain of waters. Here, too, we shall make the great discovery that our hardships held the treasures of moral and spiritual vitality.

But I want to see the light of the Psalmist’s word as it shines down another road of, human necessity. Can God turn a hard heart into a pool of water? Yes, that is just the word of His grace. “TI will take away a heart of stone, I will give a heart of flesh.” Who has not seen such transformations? The hard heart changed into a home of gracious springs and rivers! Waters pure as crystal! Sympathies and pities like brimming streams! There is nothing more wonderful, nothing more lovely, than to see the once dry,. hard, flinty life musical with the melody of springs and fountains. Look at Zaccheus, and then watch the waters flowing! Look at old Scrooge, and then watch God’s springs!