The Wellspring and the River
“The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well spring of water, springing up into everlasting life.” John iv :14-
“He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of His inmost being shall flow rivers of living water.” John vii 138.
miss the meaning of this first passage if we forget the difiference between a well and a wellspring. The Lord is speaking of an artesian well that flows from hidden fountains and gushes up in perennial freshness and fulness. This is the Lord’s own figure of ideal spiritual life and of the results of the indwelling of the Comforter. This is not trying to be good and slowly and painfully building up character by ethical culture; but this is a spontaneous life that flows from sources beyond ourselves and that works automatically, uniformly and effectually in spite of all conditions, hindrances and even natural tendencies. This is the promise of that glorious Gospel in Ezekiel which so fully anticipated the advanced revelation of the New Testament, ‘T will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them.” This is the ‘daw of spiritual life in Christ Jesus,” the new law of gravitation which the apostle says “hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” It is a mightier force within us overcoming the tendencies of our sinful nature and making it natural for us through a new divine nature to do the things which once we hated, and avoid the things which once we loved.
It is impossible for us to analyze, dissect or trace by any biological and psychological process the method of this divine mystery. This is all we can distinctly formulate — somewhere down in the
depths of our subconscious being God through the Holy Spirit takes up His abode. His actual personal presence is hidden from our consciousness, just as the hidden spring of that artesian well is far out of sight in the bowels of the earth. All we are conscious of is the manifestation of His presence from time to time in various influences, operations, emotions and efifects in our spirit and life. The Holy Spirit is just as truly in us when He makes no sign as when the fountains of joy are overflowing, or the waters of peace are softly refreshing our weary and troubled hearts.
The possibilities of the indwelling Spirit are limitless and inflnitely varied. He may bring some new grace or gift into prominence in our life and work at different times as may seem best to His sovereign will. But we are not, therefore, to say that our old experience is void and that we have received a new baptism of the Spirit. It is the same blessed wellspring flowing in new streams and springing up in new fulness as it will continue to spring up ‘‘into everlasting life.’’
Beloved friend, do you know this indwelling Spirit and this heavenly wellspring? Has God taken up His abode within your heart? And can you say,
“He never is so distant from us,
As even to be near?
He dwells within the yielded spirit
And makes our heaven here.’’
But in the seventh chapter of John our Lord passes on to a much larger truth. The wellspring has now become a river, nay, not one river only, but a mighty delta of many outflowing streams, for “Out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The secret of this is that the direction has been changed. The river is flowing out, not in. We have been saved from the life of self and entered into the life of love, which is always the life of God.
Modern sociology calls this Altruism and tries to cultivate it on mere ethical lines of human endeavor. You can no more do this than make an artesian well by pouring water into the pump and then pumping it out as the farmers do when the well begins to run dry. No, we must be filled with the Spirit first and then the overflow will take care of itself.
But we must not fail to expect a direct overflow. This is God’s test of character discipleship. ‘’Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be My disciples.” Alas for the Christians that are always receiving and never giving, always seeking blessing and never being a blessing. When Mr. Moody was first in England his attention was called to a lady with an illuminated face and always listening with marked attention in one of the front seats of the auditorium. Mr. Moody asked one day who she was. “Oh,” said one of the committee, “we call her a bog. She has attended every religious service within her reach for years, and is always after a blessing, but no one ever knew her to do anything to help another soul, either by her hands, her testimony, or her purse. And so we call her a bog, which you know is a waterhole that never discharges its stagnant water.” Beloved, are you a bog or an artesian well and a river of living water?