THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 17, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 38.

THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.

THE truest conception of God must include the thought that He is a giver, a provider, a storehouse, a fountain, from which the needs of His servants, worshipers, children, can be supplied.

FROM this conception—perverted it is true—has sprung much of the idolatry of the past.

When humanity lost spiritual sight of the true God, it began to look to the visible sources of supply, the things upon which the physical eye could look, the physical senses discern. These seemingly visible sources they began to personify and deify.

FOR instance, when the sun arose it became light. As it ascended higher in the heavens the earth grew warm. Seeds sprung up, flowers, grain, and fruit appeared. It was easy for the blinded soul to believe that the sun was the greatest god of all, and the worship of the sun became pre-eminent and world-wide. That luminary has been worshiped under different names and under different personifications all over the world, and is still worshiped to-day. It was easy to believe that the moon was consort to the sun, the female deity, life-giver, and fountain. Each of the principal stars and planets was deified and honored for some special influence it was thought to exert. Objects upon the earth were deified. If not deities, they were special representatives of deity.

The tree was worshiped because of the fruit it bore; the earth, as a great mother; rivers, because of their supply of water.

SUCH was the Nile of Egypt. The god Nilus was not equal to Ra, the sun-god, or any one of several other deities, but it was an important lesser deity. It was a sacred river to the Egyptian. One of its names was Hapee, or Hapee-mu, the abyss, the abyss of waters, the hidden. The river-god was represented as a stout man with the breasts of a woman, indicating the idea of a provider.

TRULY the great stream of 2,300 miles in direct line from mouth to source, in actual length exceeding the Amazon, being exceeded only by the Missouri to the mouth of the Mississippi, was a worthy object of worship if the earth could furnish it. Its basin extends from east to west over seventeen degrees of longitude, and from north to south over twenty-one degrees, embracing a territory of over 1,600,000 square miles. It is from one-half to three-fourths of a mile wide generally, and its lowest high-water mark, at Cairo, is from twenty-four to twenty-seven feet. Its great flood begins at lower levels in mid-summer, is highest about September 20 and begins to fall, reaching its lowest water June 20. From the White Nile, so named from its clayey color, comes the greatest amount of waters; from the Blue Nile comes the greatest quantity of alluvium to enrich the land, about four and one-half inches the last century. A few feet less water means a famine, a few feet extra a destructive flood. It is important that it come within certain limits.

ONE of the plagues of Egypt was to turn the peculiarly sweet water of the Nile into blood, to show to Egypt, even as did the other plagues, the nothingness of false gods and the folly of the worship of such vanities. The people of God never called it by its sacred name. It is in the Bible the flood, the river of Egypt, Shihor (the black).

EGYPT had its great river and river-god, and a multitude of others; but none or all could save her. Despite them all, she has become, as God's prophet declared, “the basest of the kingdoms,” never to exalt herself any more among the nations. Its fountain could give neither spiritual nor national life.

BUT there is a Fountain opened and flowing, not for Egypt alone, not for the world alone, but for the universe. With God “is the Fountain of Life.” Christ is the living Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. Man can not wash out the crimson and scarlet stain; Jesus can cleanse it all away. The crimson stain He can make white, the scarlet under the divine alchemy becomes like the driven snow. He is the Fountain of Life from which the weary may quaff and find rest and refreshing; from which the aged may drink and obtain renewing; the weak may find strength; the sick may obtain healing; and the dying may live. He is a perpetual fountain. So frequently the fountains of earth disappoint. We come to them weary, thirsty, sick, expecting to obtain water, but they are dry, or so defiled with the corruptions of earth that they poison more than cure, and leave the soul unsatisfied. But the fountain of God's life ever flows full and free. “The River of God is full of water.” There is abundant supply for all.

IT is said of the Nile that whosoever has once drunk of its sweet waters returns to drink again; but whosoever once drinks of the flood of life's well-spring thirsts no more for any other water. Says Jesus: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.” John 4:14. The soul thus connected with God becomes itself a well-spring of life, a refreshing to the weary soul. For to him who yields all to Christ to do His will, imbued with the Spirit of Christ, it is said: “And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isa. 58:11.

THEN, soul, come to the Fountain of living water and drink. God invites thee, whosoever thou art. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money.” Isa. 55:1. “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thy offspring.” Isa. 44:3, 4. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely.” Rev. 22:17.