p. 2 (722) | SEEKING A GIFT by Augusta W. Heald

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 46.

SEEKING A GIFT.

By Augusta W. Heald

WHEN the brave old warrior Caleb had driven out the sons of Anak, and taken the city of Hebron for his possession in the land of Canaan, he went up thence to another city, and said, “He that smiteth Kirjath-Sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.” See Joshua 15:15-19.

Accordingly, when the young Othniel, Caleb’s nephew, had taken the city, his cousin Achsah was given him to wife. When Achsah came as a bride to Othniel, “she moved him to ask of her father a field.”

While she yet lingered, Caleb inquired of his daughter, “What wouldest thou?” Achsah replied, “Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.”

In eastern countries a well or spring of water was considered a priceless blessing, and Achsah, in obtaining this gift from her father, became a lasting benefactor to her family in all its generations.

This brief record contains a lesson for us. Does our life-lot seem to us a dry, southern field, barren and undesirable? It is our privilege to ask a blessing of our heavenly Father, who is even more ready to grant us good gifts than we are to ask them. We may ask and receive from Him the living water of the spring of salvation, of which if a man drink, he will never thirst for the unsatisfying draughts of earthly pleasure. But the living water which God gives through Christ Jesus will be in us a well of water springing up unto eternal life, and of which we may impart to others.

“God blesses us that we may be a blessing.” “Covet earnestly the best gifts.”

AUGUSTA W. HEALD.

Windham, N. H.