The Fountain With the Cup
A CERTAIN man placed a fountain by the wayside, and hung a cup near by with a little chain. He was told sometime afterward that a great art critic had found much fault with the design of his fountain. “But,” he asked, “do many persons drink at it?” Then they told him that thousands of poor people, men, women, and children, slaked their thirst at his fountain. He smiled, and said that he was little troubled at the critic’s observations. He only added a hope that on some sultry summer day the critic himself might fill the cup and be refreshed. The Bible is the fountain with the cup. Just now there seems to be an unusual number of critics. Some friends of the fountain seem to fear lest confidence be shaken, and its honor be decreased. But we may be sure of this, that from the standpoint of its munificent Designer the only question is, “Do many persons drink at it?” and that God, the giver of the fountain, is satisfied with the knowledge that multitudes of earth’s weary, wistful souls are slaking their thirst from its life-giving flow. O that men who are troubled with doubts and questionings and skeptical thoughts about the Bible would calmly examine it for themselves! O that in a candid, teachable frame of mind they would take it up and read it!—Selected.