Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
Salvation is pictured as water to be drawn from wells with joy, belonging to the song sung when God's anger is turned away and He has become salvation to be trusted without fear. Christ has opened this fountain for a sinful, suffering world, and its water of life is freely offered to all who thirst and are willing to come. Drawing is by living faith laying hold on God's strength, by receiving Christ's words as spiritual food and digging daily into the wells of His Word, and by prayer in living connection with God. The supply is inexhaustible, for thousands have drawn from the riches of Christ without diminishing its grand themes, including His incarnation, atoning sacrifice and mediatorial work. This joyful drawing brings comfort, strength, refreshment and victory over sin, and becomes a living spring within that flows outward in righteous words and deeds to refresh others.
Language and Surrounding Song
Salvation is like water drawn from wells, and it is received with joy. Drinking these waters is receiving the salvation found in Christ. Those who turn from evil and receive forgiveness and redemption draw that salvation with joy, for God is their salvation, strength, and song.
It belongs to the song sung in that day when anger is turned away and comfort is given. In that song God Himself has become salvation, to be trusted without fear, with the Lord Jehovah as strength and song and salvation. The joy of drawing is joined to trusting without fear and to finding strength, song, and comfort in Him. This salvation makes the way for the ransomed a safe, royal path.
The joyful drawing leads on to praising the Lord, calling upon His name, declaring His doings among the people, and exalting His name. It leads to singing because He has done excellent things known in all the earth. It leads to crying out and shouting as inhabitants of Zion because great is the Holy One of Israel in their midst. Drawing from His supply in this way brings help and blessing, renewed courage, and strength in weakness and sickness, so that the weak speak with power under the Spirit and are not weary. Thirsty souls so receive the refreshing streams of the water of life by coming and eating, digesting and living upon the precious promises, with encouragement, refreshment, light, and the passing away of faint-heartedness.
It belongs to the time when the root of Jesse stands for an ensign of the people, the Gentiles seek to Him, and His rest is glorious. Then the Lord sets His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria and Egypt and Pathros and Cush and Elam and Shinar and Hamath and the islands of the sea. Then He sets up an ensign for the nations and assembles the outcasts of Israel and gathers the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
It describes the abundant blessings after idolatry is abandoned and Israel returns to loyalty, when people joyfully draw as living streams refreshing those thirsting for the water of life. God Himself is the water of salvation from which people drink, and for this He is to be praised. For the ransomed this salvation makes a safe, royal path, with Jesus as refuge and shield.
Feast and Wilderness Memory
At the Feast of Tabernacles the words were sung as part of the celebration while water was poured out at the temple altar, poured by priests beside the altar. The singing joined joyful drawing of water to the wells of salvation, picturing salvation received as life-giving water drawn with joy. The water poured at the altar recalled and represented the water God brought from the smitten rock to quench Israel's thirst and refresh the Hebrews in the wilderness.
In the water-drawing ceremony the verse expressed the people's joy as they drank from the spring of Siloam. The ceremony's water represented and symbolized the fountain of salvation received with joy, the fountain that had flowed from the rock to refresh the Hebrews in the wilderness.
Answering Christ's invitation to every thirsty soul to come and drink is done by breaking away from self and coming to Him, giving self to Him in loving service and drinking through study of the precious truths of the Bible. This each person must do for themselves, since no one else can do it for them, and it remedies evil thoughts and disposition. Responding, Lord, we come, makes life henceforth a continual Feast of Tabernacles and a continual thank offering for unnumbered and unmerited blessings.
Christ the Open Fountain
Christ has opened the fountain of salvation for a sinful, suffering world, and its water of life is freely offered to all who thirst and are willing to come. Salvation is like life-giving water drawn with joy from a well, and every thirsty soul may freely drink and receive it. Those who answer the invitation and come to Him draw from the wells with joy.
The waters are found in Christ, who is the Bread of life come down from heaven and who gives the water to those who hunger and thirst for life. From Him flow the streams of salvation, and Jesus Himself is the source of the abundant supply, available to each person, so that drinking from Him revives and nourishes the soul. His inexpressible love has furnished the costly gospel banquet and provided unsearchable, inexhaustible resources, so that what is drawn is nothing less than Christ Himself. The well's abundant provision is God's grace in Christ received by faith, for through Christ's imputed righteousness sinners are counted and treated as just, and grace supplies power to keep them free from sin.
The streams are freely offered through the influence of the Holy Spirit bringing spiritual refreshment, while rejecting them for human wisdom leaves hearts parched. Salvation flows as pure streams from God above, and to draw from that source with joy is to direct the soul's adoration upward to God and to earnestly seek His grace and power, which fills the soul with comfort and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Israel was meant to be like such wells to the world, preserving knowledge of God's law and the symbols and prophecies pointing to the Saviour, and revealing God, His character, and His will among the nations. Through Israel's sacrificial service Christ was to be lifted up so that all who looked to Him could live.
The waters of salvation are the bread of life and saving truth that Christ gives through His faithful, humble followers, and those who receive this message find the source of spiritual power.
Drawing Means and Practice
Drawing is by living faith on the strength and power of God, laying firm hold on the heavenly provision through reliance on the Redeemer who gave His life so sinners will not perish but have everlasting life. Drawing means answering the invitation to every thirsty soul to come and drink by breaking away from self and coming to Him, giving self to Him in loving service, and drinking through study of the precious truths of the Bible. This drinking from the fountain of living water is something each person must do for themselves, which no one else can do for them, and it remedies evil thoughts and disposition. When people answer the call to come by saying Lord, we come, Christ's presence is acknowledged, darkness flees, light shines, and hearts are drawn to God as they freely receive the water of life offered to all who are athirst and will come.
Drawing means receiving Christ's words as spiritual food, coming to Christ and eating, digesting and living upon the precious promises, believing and living the Gospel, and taking His Word and practicing it in daily experience. By this, spiritual life, health and vigor are sustained as physical life is sustained by natural food. Those who so take in His Word grow like Him and bring the perfections of His character into their own, manifesting unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love and revealing Christlikeness in all they do, proving they are eating the bread of heaven. Through His combined humanity and divinity as a steppingstone for man to step on, this puts the soul on vantage ground with God, imbues the life with His perfume and sanctified holy character, and gives eternal life within because he is in Christ and Christ is in him.
This requires taking hold of the Word with the perceptive powers and appropriating it to spiritual necessities and need, feeding on it day by day as the bread of life. It requires the work of grace in the heart, with the heart opened, softened, subdued, humble and contrite, cherished idols dethroned, the understanding opened to understand the Scriptures, and truth sought as hidden treasure. Those who so eat and drink the bread of life and the waters of salvation grow spiritually, and the truth in its development gives evidence of constant expansion and new developments. The wells themselves are God's Word and the Bible, the revelation of God's will showing the way to heaven, holding every truth essential for salvation as the open storehouse of the unsearchable riches of Christ for heart and mind, whose value is beyond estimate. Drawing is making the Bible one's study and guide and very creed of life, searching out the mysteries of salvation, setting the Lord before the mind and beholding His character until changed into the same image, with a burning spirit that tells what Jesus is and what belonging to Jesus means, and what it means to be a Christian can be understood only by careful and prayerful study. Those who hear the message and believe the truth are no longer confined and bound to human creeds, partition walls are broken down, and each draws directly from Scripture according to individual ability and responsibility.
People must return to these wells continually and draw daily, digging deep and laying sure foundations, receiving God's gracious gifts again and again to advance in spiritual knowledge. Those who decide to be on the Lord's side must not rest satisfied with present attainments but must keep seeking a deeper experience of salvation. Those who would be saved must drink constantly, seeking an indwelling Saviour more than honor and position, walking humbly with God, studying the self-sacrificing life of Christ and following His example, and refusing a disposition to seek the highest place and mastery over others. Drawing is through prayer and a living connection with God and a personal, Spirit-sanctified experience in which the soul drinks at the fountain of salvation and draws supplies from His exhaustless storehouse. This drinking sanctifies the soul by the Spirit of God and gives a living, fresh experience and supplies strength for overcoming sin. Church leaders and members need this personal drinking first, because only those who have drunk themselves know how to lead others to the fountain, and only they can cheer, strengthen, encourage, edify and refresh others by bringing forth things new and old, for those who have not received this spiritual supply cannot lead others to salvation or refresh and strengthen them.
Those willing to obey the will of God see His salvation and draw from it with joy, depending fully on the Saviour instead of trusting in human understanding. Drawing this water means relying on Him rather than on feelings or sentimentalism, and calls for repentance, obedience, and cooperation with God in overcoming sin, with the fountain open but help to be sought without delay. Drinking deeply means taking the truths God has given to heart until they become a living spring within that refreshes souls ready to perish. It is done by praying for a deeper experience and studying the precious truths given for this time with a softened and subdued heart, so that truth becomes a living spring in the heart flowing forth, and simple words carry conviction.
Workers whose way is hedged up and made hard, facing hindrances, testing, and lack of aid, after talking faith, praying in more earnest faith, and working in faith with life and hope and courage and doing all they can, are to wait for the Lord declaring His faithfulness, not in fretful anxiety but in undaunted faith and unshaken trust, and He will bring the work to pass and answer the mystery of His providence with encouragement and salvation. For every soul handling sacred things in a highly exalted place, drinking is looking away from the battle and warfare to the victory by hiding self with Christ in God and drinking new and living streams. That drinking is looking unto Jesus, praying in simplicity and faith, gazing upon Jesus, asking and receiving, praying to be strengthened with all might to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible, strengthening one another, and coming to comprehend the length and depth and breadth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, being filled with all the fullness of God, producing unselfish perfect service without selfishness and prescribing order and unity. A thirst for these waters is present right now among many in the world as well as many church members, a hunger for the bread of life and desire to know the Scriptures and what the Word says personally, valued above the service of song or even prayer. The Holy Spirit works on mind and heart drawing people to this bread and word of life, and those who thirst see everything around them changing, including human feelings and human ideas of what constitutes religion, and they come to hear the Word just as it reads because they desire to build upon a firm foundation, which makes the present an urgent opportunity to study the Word of life and requires Christians to be always ready to give a reason of the hope in them with meekness and fear.
Abundant Inexhaustible Supply
The well is the riches of Christ in God's Word, the open storehouse of unsearchable riches for heart and mind holding every truth essential for salvation, and its supply is not lessened by drawing, for thousands have drawn without diminishing it or exhausting its grand and holy themes, and thousands more may still draw with ever deeper interest, drawing continually without depletion. Believers are to seek its life-giving refreshment deeply and personally, with Jesus within as a well of water springing up to eternal life. Its inexhaustible depth includes Christ's incarnation, atoning sacrifice, and mediatorial work, whose mysteries diligent study keeps uncovering with further truth still to be disclosed.
It is a fountain of abundant supply from which God's people, as they accepted the heavenly message, were drawn away from earthly things and sustained in waiting. Drinking its streams brings gratitude, contentment, and peace whatever others do, even amid loss, affliction, and rejection, richer than any earthly treasure. The fountain stands open and its benefits are received freely, yet its help must be sought without delay, with repentance, obedience, and cooperation with God in overcoming sin.
Those conformed to the world lose desire for communion and do not thirst for this water, but drink instead from broken cisterns that can hold no water. Choosing the ungodly for companions brings the mind under worldly principles and customs until, by association and habit, it is conformed to the world's standard, love for God grows cold, spiritual blindness comes, no difference is seen between transgressors and commandment keepers, and the brightness of eternal realities fades. In that condition truth presented with force awakens no hunger and no thirst, the preciousness of Jesus and the truth is not discerned, the world's spirit and views are caught, and just to the degree that spirit dwells in the heart it controls the life. Thirst for this water is longing for spiritual life and hunger for spiritual nourishment.
Joyful Effects Within
Drawing with joy brings comfort and joy and strength to do the divine works, takes away sadness and discouragement, draws the one who drinks nearer and nearer to God with increased faith and firm reliance, makes that life a help and blessing to others, and brings complete triumph over Satan and sin by the greatest powers in the universe, for God Himself is salvation to be trusted without fear, His anger turned away into comfort. The same drawing brings help and blessing with renewed courage and strength in weakness and sickness, so that even the weak speak with power under the Spirit and are not weary, belonging with trust without fear because the Lord Jehovah is strength and song, and overflowing in praising the Lord, calling on His name, declaring His doings among the people, singing for His excellent works known in all the earth, and crying out for the greatness of the Holy One of Israel in the midst of Zion.
Thirsty souls receive the refreshing streams of the water of life by coming and eating, digesting and living upon the precious promises, and this receiving brings encouragement, refreshment, light, and the passing away of faint-heartedness, for God is salvation and strength and song, His anger turned away and His comfort given, so His people trust and are not afraid, with joy overflowing in praise, calling on His name, declaring His doings, exalting His name, singing for His excellent things known in all the earth, and crying out and shouting because great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst. The water must be drunk deeply in order to be spiritually refreshed, for it revives and nourishes the soul and causes it to flourish, and this drinking is receiving spiritual refreshment from the Lord as from a full, freely available fountain. Such spiritual life is not mere outward religious form but requires vital godliness and the deep working of the Spirit.
Receiving God's blessings and promises in this way refreshes the heart, bringing joy and love and praise, giving strength to hope, turning darkness to light, and enabling a person to cheer both self and others. Receiving with joy is receiving the righteousness of Christ with life-giving influence in the soul, bringing forgiveness of all iniquities, healing of all spiritual diseases such as envy, jealousy, evil-surmising, evil-speaking and working against God, redemption of life from destruction, and a crown of loving-kindness and tender mercy. This produces songs of praise on lips and heart, meditation on Christ's sufferings, thankfulness for forgiveness instead of watching to accuse and condemn others, and appreciation of His tenderness toward His own as evidence of the new birth, and this joy is had only when self and pride and self-exaltation are put away and put to death.
The water is known by its effect, for the heart is changed, praise is kept continually on the lips, and heaven's song of thanksgiving is learned on earth. The change is proved by words and works, for the good treasure of a converted heart brings forth good things, comforting words that lift burdens, a family united as a sample of heaven, and the avoidance of sowing discord and misery, since every word and act is seed, and those who drink sow to eternal life, reaping precious grain now and leading other souls to conversion. As disciples take in His Word they grow like Him and show His character in daily life — unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love — for believing and living the Gospel sustains spiritual life and gives vigor, and receiving Christ's Word as spiritual food and practicing it sustains spiritual life, health and vigor as natural food sustains physical life.
Through Christ's combined humanity and divinity as a steppingstone, the soul is set on vantage ground with God, imbued with His perfume and sanctified holy character, and given eternal life abiding within because he is in Christ and Christ is in him, which comes by eating the Bread of Life and drinking the water of salvation through taking His Word and practicing it. Christ laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and joined divinity with humanity to become that steppingstone to heaven, so that all who drink are filled with His holiness. This drawing is comfort for all times, especially when infirmity ends active work, calling for praise and trust in Jesus as righteousness, leaning the whole weight upon Him, staying the soul in confidence and rolling every burden upon Him, receiving grace to be patient and trustful, overcoming restlessness, having the heart warmed with His own Spirit and the weak soul revived, while continuing a few more days as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better, heavenly country and home.
Depending fully on the Saviour instead of trusting human understanding brings a living realization of His goodness and power, and those willing to obey see His salvation and draw from it with joy. That realization always finds expression in open praise that cannot be held back, especially in meetings, and it removes mourning and complaining. Directing the soul's adoration upward and earnestly seeking His grace and power fills the soul with comfort and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, for salvation flows as pure streams from above.
Drawing with joy is experienced in earnest, unselfish work for others and in the privilege of working with God, receiving through consecration and entire dependence all the pledged power and riches of heaven with joy and gladness. Those who so labor receive divine approval with grace and joy and peace, with angels working alongside them, and hearing the testimonies of the work brings refreshing streams of salvation flowing from the very throne into the heart. Drinking deeply in this way through faith, Bible study and prayer is felt especially by those working to win others, whose need for spiritual understanding and righteousness grows greater, while opposition and trials also drive them to seek God and grow in grace and knowledge. Drinking these waters is using the provisions God has supplied to preserve and nourish the life of faith, and a deeper, more thorough draught is shown in fuller devotion, submission of will, death to self, and cleansing from sin unto holiness and growth in sanctification.
Drawing with joy is receiving the clear, pure truth of God's Word, whose thoughts sanctify the soul in perfect obedience to God's law.
Flowing Outward to Others
Christ's grace purifies, refreshes and strengthens like water refreshing a barren land, and those who receive Christ have a continuing source of grace within whose life flows outward in righteous words and deeds that refresh others. A refreshed soul can refresh and encourage others while remaining cheerful without joining in foolishness, and is built up in Christ. Those who draw daily, digging deep and laying sure foundations, can become like a spring of water that refreshes others.
Drawing from the fountain means having a living connection with God and a personal, Spirit-sanctified experience, and without this spiritual supply none can lead others to salvation or refresh and strengthen them. Drinking deeply means taking the truths God has given to heart until they become a living spring within that refreshes souls ready to perish. God gives wisdom to share these blessings rightly, making believers channels who communicate His wisdom and understanding and reveal His character and attributes to others. Representing Christ by patience, courage and steadfast integrity makes daily life a bright light that wins respect even from enemies of the doctrine, leads many to believe the truth advocated, and gives even simple words power to carry conviction to hearts.
Christ has opened this fountain for a sinful, suffering world, and its water of life is freely offered to all who thirst and are willing to come. The invitation to come and freely drink is to be proclaimed by women and men, by every believer and by God's messengers, so the message reaches even the earth's waste places. When what obstructs the Holy Spirit's work is removed, God pours these waters in abundance through human channels, so consecrated workers bring salvation to many. Those longing for spiritual help are to receive this water from Christ and give it to those in need.
Those who study redemption are to drink deeply, with Jesus dwelling within as a well of water springing up to everlasting life. The soul converted from love of the world and worship of earthly treasure discovers these wells in Jesus Christ and His Word, hungers for the Word holding treasures to be constantly sought and constantly satisfying, draws continually in faith, appropriates for self and communicates to others without diminishing the supply, and drinking the water Christ gives it becomes in him a well springing up into everlasting life. Drawing water means drawing men to the well with the power of the whole heavenly host, given to everyone believing in Jesus as personal Saviour, imparting the divine nature with all power promised, overcoming the adversary and gaining entrance into the city of God whose gates are thrown open. Drinking deeply is also becoming partakers of the divine nature.
Receiving salvation freely calls for joyful, wholehearted enthusiasm in service and rejoicing in worship, not cold indifference like marble statues, but being deeply moved and excited by the grand ennobling theme of salvation. This means warm enthusiasm and festivals of rejoicing unto the Lord in school and church, and a gathering may thus receive spiritual renewal, rejoice in God and praise the Redeemer. When Christ's presence is acknowledged, darkness flees, light shines, and hearts are drawn to God as they freely receive the water of life offered to all who are athirst and will come.
The water is the gospel message, the bread of life and spiritual food that souls hungry for truth need in order to live. Those who do not know God in America, including the unwarned in large cities and in the Southern field, are starving for this water, their cries ascend to God, and many go to the grave without it while means are tied up in lands, elegant mansions and costly monuments over the dead. By Word and providence God commands carrying this water to their relief, and professed children of God who withhold it leave their spiritual energies paralyzed. The water must also be offered with temporal food to men and women continued in sin, with those preparing food devising means to arrest attention, warn of danger and give the bread of life in soul-saving work drawing souls to Christ, for without this spiritual work means and talent are spent to consume without producing and temporal food alone is not a savor of life unto life.
Perishing souls thirst for this water and starve for the bread of life, crying for help out of Christ while those joined to Christ feed upon the Word of life. Believers must not sit content with truth for themselves while others are in darkness cherishing delusions and believing a lie, but must feel the burden to carry precious truth to them and invite them to come to Christ for salvation. Those who receive this saving gift drawn from Christ like water from a spring are to be encouraged to serve Him and share truth with others.
Salvation is pictured as water to be drawn from wells with joy, belonging to the song sung when God's anger is turned away and He has become salvation to be trusted without fear. Christ has opened this fountain for a sinful, suffering world, and its water of life is freely offered to all who thirst and are willing to come. Drawing is by living faith laying hold on God's strength, by receiving Christ's words as spiritual food and digging daily into the wells of His Word, and by prayer in living connection with God. The supply is inexhaustible, for thousands have drawn from the riches of Christ without diminishing its grand themes, including His incarnation, atoning sacrifice and mediatorial work. This joyful drawing brings comfort, strength, refreshment and victory over sin, and becomes a living spring within that flows outward in righteous words and deeds to refresh others.
Language and Surrounding Song
Salvation is like water drawn from wells, and it is received with joy. Drinking these waters is receiving the salvation found in Christ. Those who turn from evil and receive forgiveness and redemption draw that salvation with joy, for God is their salvation, strength, and song.
It belongs to the song sung in that day when anger is turned away and comfort is given. In that song God Himself has become salvation, to be trusted without fear, with the Lord Jehovah as strength and song and salvation. The joy of drawing is joined to trusting without fear and to finding strength, song, and comfort in Him. This salvation makes the way for the ransomed a safe, royal path.
The joyful drawing leads on to praising the Lord, calling upon His name, declaring His doings among the people, and exalting His name. It leads to singing because He has done excellent things known in all the earth. It leads to crying out and shouting as inhabitants of Zion because great is the Holy One of Israel in their midst. Drawing from His supply in this way brings help and blessing, renewed courage, and strength in weakness and sickness, so that the weak speak with power under the Spirit and are not weary. Thirsty souls so receive the refreshing streams of the water of life by coming and eating, digesting and living upon the precious promises, with encouragement, refreshment, light, and the passing away of faint-heartedness.
It belongs to the time when the root of Jesse stands for an ensign of the people, the Gentiles seek to Him, and His rest is glorious. Then the Lord sets His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria and Egypt and Pathros and Cush and Elam and Shinar and Hamath and the islands of the sea. Then He sets up an ensign for the nations and assembles the outcasts of Israel and gathers the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
It describes the abundant blessings after idolatry is abandoned and Israel returns to loyalty, when people joyfully draw as living streams refreshing those thirsting for the water of life. God Himself is the water of salvation from which people drink, and for this He is to be praised. For the ransomed this salvation makes a safe, royal path, with Jesus as refuge and shield.
Feast and Wilderness Memory
At the Feast of Tabernacles the words were sung as part of the celebration while water was poured out at the temple altar, poured by priests beside the altar. The singing joined joyful drawing of water to the wells of salvation, picturing salvation received as life-giving water drawn with joy. The water poured at the altar recalled and represented the water God brought from the smitten rock to quench Israel's thirst and refresh the Hebrews in the wilderness.
In the water-drawing ceremony the verse expressed the people's joy as they drank from the spring of Siloam. The ceremony's water represented and symbolized the fountain of salvation received with joy, the fountain that had flowed from the rock to refresh the Hebrews in the wilderness.
Answering Christ's invitation to every thirsty soul to come and drink is done by breaking away from self and coming to Him, giving self to Him in loving service and drinking through study of the precious truths of the Bible. This each person must do for themselves, since no one else can do it for them, and it remedies evil thoughts and disposition. Responding, Lord, we come, makes life henceforth a continual Feast of Tabernacles and a continual thank offering for unnumbered and unmerited blessings.
Christ the Open Fountain
Christ has opened the fountain of salvation for a sinful, suffering world, and its water of life is freely offered to all who thirst and are willing to come. Salvation is like life-giving water drawn with joy from a well, and every thirsty soul may freely drink and receive it. Those who answer the invitation and come to Him draw from the wells with joy.
The waters are found in Christ, who is the Bread of life come down from heaven and who gives the water to those who hunger and thirst for life. From Him flow the streams of salvation, and Jesus Himself is the source of the abundant supply, available to each person, so that drinking from Him revives and nourishes the soul. His inexpressible love has furnished the costly gospel banquet and provided unsearchable, inexhaustible resources, so that what is drawn is nothing less than Christ Himself. The well's abundant provision is God's grace in Christ received by faith, for through Christ's imputed righteousness sinners are counted and treated as just, and grace supplies power to keep them free from sin.
The streams are freely offered through the influence of the Holy Spirit bringing spiritual refreshment, while rejecting them for human wisdom leaves hearts parched. Salvation flows as pure streams from God above, and to draw from that source with joy is to direct the soul's adoration upward to God and to earnestly seek His grace and power, which fills the soul with comfort and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Israel was meant to be like such wells to the world, preserving knowledge of God's law and the symbols and prophecies pointing to the Saviour, and revealing God, His character, and His will among the nations. Through Israel's sacrificial service Christ was to be lifted up so that all who looked to Him could live.
The waters of salvation are the bread of life and saving truth that Christ gives through His faithful, humble followers, and those who receive this message find the source of spiritual power.
Drawing Means and Practice
Drawing is by living faith on the strength and power of God, laying firm hold on the heavenly provision through reliance on the Redeemer who gave His life so sinners will not perish but have everlasting life. Drawing means answering the invitation to every thirsty soul to come and drink by breaking away from self and coming to Him, giving self to Him in loving service, and drinking through study of the precious truths of the Bible. This drinking from the fountain of living water is something each person must do for themselves, which no one else can do for them, and it remedies evil thoughts and disposition. When people answer the call to come by saying Lord, we come, Christ's presence is acknowledged, darkness flees, light shines, and hearts are drawn to God as they freely receive the water of life offered to all who are athirst and will come.
Drawing means receiving Christ's words as spiritual food, coming to Christ and eating, digesting and living upon the precious promises, believing and living the Gospel, and taking His Word and practicing it in daily experience. By this, spiritual life, health and vigor are sustained as physical life is sustained by natural food. Those who so take in His Word grow like Him and bring the perfections of His character into their own, manifesting unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love and revealing Christlikeness in all they do, proving they are eating the bread of heaven. Through His combined humanity and divinity as a steppingstone for man to step on, this puts the soul on vantage ground with God, imbues the life with His perfume and sanctified holy character, and gives eternal life within because he is in Christ and Christ is in him.
This requires taking hold of the Word with the perceptive powers and appropriating it to spiritual necessities and need, feeding on it day by day as the bread of life. It requires the work of grace in the heart, with the heart opened, softened, subdued, humble and contrite, cherished idols dethroned, the understanding opened to understand the Scriptures, and truth sought as hidden treasure. Those who so eat and drink the bread of life and the waters of salvation grow spiritually, and the truth in its development gives evidence of constant expansion and new developments. The wells themselves are God's Word and the Bible, the revelation of God's will showing the way to heaven, holding every truth essential for salvation as the open storehouse of the unsearchable riches of Christ for heart and mind, whose value is beyond estimate. Drawing is making the Bible one's study and guide and very creed of life, searching out the mysteries of salvation, setting the Lord before the mind and beholding His character until changed into the same image, with a burning spirit that tells what Jesus is and what belonging to Jesus means, and what it means to be a Christian can be understood only by careful and prayerful study. Those who hear the message and believe the truth are no longer confined and bound to human creeds, partition walls are broken down, and each draws directly from Scripture according to individual ability and responsibility.
People must return to these wells continually and draw daily, digging deep and laying sure foundations, receiving God's gracious gifts again and again to advance in spiritual knowledge. Those who decide to be on the Lord's side must not rest satisfied with present attainments but must keep seeking a deeper experience of salvation. Those who would be saved must drink constantly, seeking an indwelling Saviour more than honor and position, walking humbly with God, studying the self-sacrificing life of Christ and following His example, and refusing a disposition to seek the highest place and mastery over others. Drawing is through prayer and a living connection with God and a personal, Spirit-sanctified experience in which the soul drinks at the fountain of salvation and draws supplies from His exhaustless storehouse. This drinking sanctifies the soul by the Spirit of God and gives a living, fresh experience and supplies strength for overcoming sin. Church leaders and members need this personal drinking first, because only those who have drunk themselves know how to lead others to the fountain, and only they can cheer, strengthen, encourage, edify and refresh others by bringing forth things new and old, for those who have not received this spiritual supply cannot lead others to salvation or refresh and strengthen them.
Those willing to obey the will of God see His salvation and draw from it with joy, depending fully on the Saviour instead of trusting in human understanding. Drawing this water means relying on Him rather than on feelings or sentimentalism, and calls for repentance, obedience, and cooperation with God in overcoming sin, with the fountain open but help to be sought without delay. Drinking deeply means taking the truths God has given to heart until they become a living spring within that refreshes souls ready to perish. It is done by praying for a deeper experience and studying the precious truths given for this time with a softened and subdued heart, so that truth becomes a living spring in the heart flowing forth, and simple words carry conviction.
Workers whose way is hedged up and made hard, facing hindrances, testing, and lack of aid, after talking faith, praying in more earnest faith, and working in faith with life and hope and courage and doing all they can, are to wait for the Lord declaring His faithfulness, not in fretful anxiety but in undaunted faith and unshaken trust, and He will bring the work to pass and answer the mystery of His providence with encouragement and salvation. For every soul handling sacred things in a highly exalted place, drinking is looking away from the battle and warfare to the victory by hiding self with Christ in God and drinking new and living streams. That drinking is looking unto Jesus, praying in simplicity and faith, gazing upon Jesus, asking and receiving, praying to be strengthened with all might to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible, strengthening one another, and coming to comprehend the length and depth and breadth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, being filled with all the fullness of God, producing unselfish perfect service without selfishness and prescribing order and unity. A thirst for these waters is present right now among many in the world as well as many church members, a hunger for the bread of life and desire to know the Scriptures and what the Word says personally, valued above the service of song or even prayer. The Holy Spirit works on mind and heart drawing people to this bread and word of life, and those who thirst see everything around them changing, including human feelings and human ideas of what constitutes religion, and they come to hear the Word just as it reads because they desire to build upon a firm foundation, which makes the present an urgent opportunity to study the Word of life and requires Christians to be always ready to give a reason of the hope in them with meekness and fear.
Abundant Inexhaustible Supply
The well is the riches of Christ in God's Word, the open storehouse of unsearchable riches for heart and mind holding every truth essential for salvation, and its supply is not lessened by drawing, for thousands have drawn without diminishing it or exhausting its grand and holy themes, and thousands more may still draw with ever deeper interest, drawing continually without depletion. Believers are to seek its life-giving refreshment deeply and personally, with Jesus within as a well of water springing up to eternal life. Its inexhaustible depth includes Christ's incarnation, atoning sacrifice, and mediatorial work, whose mysteries diligent study keeps uncovering with further truth still to be disclosed.
It is a fountain of abundant supply from which God's people, as they accepted the heavenly message, were drawn away from earthly things and sustained in waiting. Drinking its streams brings gratitude, contentment, and peace whatever others do, even amid loss, affliction, and rejection, richer than any earthly treasure. The fountain stands open and its benefits are received freely, yet its help must be sought without delay, with repentance, obedience, and cooperation with God in overcoming sin.
Those conformed to the world lose desire for communion and do not thirst for this water, but drink instead from broken cisterns that can hold no water. Choosing the ungodly for companions brings the mind under worldly principles and customs until, by association and habit, it is conformed to the world's standard, love for God grows cold, spiritual blindness comes, no difference is seen between transgressors and commandment keepers, and the brightness of eternal realities fades. In that condition truth presented with force awakens no hunger and no thirst, the preciousness of Jesus and the truth is not discerned, the world's spirit and views are caught, and just to the degree that spirit dwells in the heart it controls the life. Thirst for this water is longing for spiritual life and hunger for spiritual nourishment.
Joyful Effects Within
Drawing with joy brings comfort and joy and strength to do the divine works, takes away sadness and discouragement, draws the one who drinks nearer and nearer to God with increased faith and firm reliance, makes that life a help and blessing to others, and brings complete triumph over Satan and sin by the greatest powers in the universe, for God Himself is salvation to be trusted without fear, His anger turned away into comfort. The same drawing brings help and blessing with renewed courage and strength in weakness and sickness, so that even the weak speak with power under the Spirit and are not weary, belonging with trust without fear because the Lord Jehovah is strength and song, and overflowing in praising the Lord, calling on His name, declaring His doings among the people, singing for His excellent works known in all the earth, and crying out for the greatness of the Holy One of Israel in the midst of Zion.
Thirsty souls receive the refreshing streams of the water of life by coming and eating, digesting and living upon the precious promises, and this receiving brings encouragement, refreshment, light, and the passing away of faint-heartedness, for God is salvation and strength and song, His anger turned away and His comfort given, so His people trust and are not afraid, with joy overflowing in praise, calling on His name, declaring His doings, exalting His name, singing for His excellent things known in all the earth, and crying out and shouting because great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst. The water must be drunk deeply in order to be spiritually refreshed, for it revives and nourishes the soul and causes it to flourish, and this drinking is receiving spiritual refreshment from the Lord as from a full, freely available fountain. Such spiritual life is not mere outward religious form but requires vital godliness and the deep working of the Spirit.
Receiving God's blessings and promises in this way refreshes the heart, bringing joy and love and praise, giving strength to hope, turning darkness to light, and enabling a person to cheer both self and others. Receiving with joy is receiving the righteousness of Christ with life-giving influence in the soul, bringing forgiveness of all iniquities, healing of all spiritual diseases such as envy, jealousy, evil-surmising, evil-speaking and working against God, redemption of life from destruction, and a crown of loving-kindness and tender mercy. This produces songs of praise on lips and heart, meditation on Christ's sufferings, thankfulness for forgiveness instead of watching to accuse and condemn others, and appreciation of His tenderness toward His own as evidence of the new birth, and this joy is had only when self and pride and self-exaltation are put away and put to death.
The water is known by its effect, for the heart is changed, praise is kept continually on the lips, and heaven's song of thanksgiving is learned on earth. The change is proved by words and works, for the good treasure of a converted heart brings forth good things, comforting words that lift burdens, a family united as a sample of heaven, and the avoidance of sowing discord and misery, since every word and act is seed, and those who drink sow to eternal life, reaping precious grain now and leading other souls to conversion. As disciples take in His Word they grow like Him and show His character in daily life — unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love — for believing and living the Gospel sustains spiritual life and gives vigor, and receiving Christ's Word as spiritual food and practicing it sustains spiritual life, health and vigor as natural food sustains physical life.
Through Christ's combined humanity and divinity as a steppingstone, the soul is set on vantage ground with God, imbued with His perfume and sanctified holy character, and given eternal life abiding within because he is in Christ and Christ is in him, which comes by eating the Bread of Life and drinking the water of salvation through taking His Word and practicing it. Christ laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and joined divinity with humanity to become that steppingstone to heaven, so that all who drink are filled with His holiness. This drawing is comfort for all times, especially when infirmity ends active work, calling for praise and trust in Jesus as righteousness, leaning the whole weight upon Him, staying the soul in confidence and rolling every burden upon Him, receiving grace to be patient and trustful, overcoming restlessness, having the heart warmed with His own Spirit and the weak soul revived, while continuing a few more days as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better, heavenly country and home.
Depending fully on the Saviour instead of trusting human understanding brings a living realization of His goodness and power, and those willing to obey see His salvation and draw from it with joy. That realization always finds expression in open praise that cannot be held back, especially in meetings, and it removes mourning and complaining. Directing the soul's adoration upward and earnestly seeking His grace and power fills the soul with comfort and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, for salvation flows as pure streams from above.
Drawing with joy is experienced in earnest, unselfish work for others and in the privilege of working with God, receiving through consecration and entire dependence all the pledged power and riches of heaven with joy and gladness. Those who so labor receive divine approval with grace and joy and peace, with angels working alongside them, and hearing the testimonies of the work brings refreshing streams of salvation flowing from the very throne into the heart. Drinking deeply in this way through faith, Bible study and prayer is felt especially by those working to win others, whose need for spiritual understanding and righteousness grows greater, while opposition and trials also drive them to seek God and grow in grace and knowledge. Drinking these waters is using the provisions God has supplied to preserve and nourish the life of faith, and a deeper, more thorough draught is shown in fuller devotion, submission of will, death to self, and cleansing from sin unto holiness and growth in sanctification.
Drawing with joy is receiving the clear, pure truth of God's Word, whose thoughts sanctify the soul in perfect obedience to God's law.
Flowing Outward to Others
Christ's grace purifies, refreshes and strengthens like water refreshing a barren land, and those who receive Christ have a continuing source of grace within whose life flows outward in righteous words and deeds that refresh others. A refreshed soul can refresh and encourage others while remaining cheerful without joining in foolishness, and is built up in Christ. Those who draw daily, digging deep and laying sure foundations, can become like a spring of water that refreshes others.
Drawing from the fountain means having a living connection with God and a personal, Spirit-sanctified experience, and without this spiritual supply none can lead others to salvation or refresh and strengthen them. Drinking deeply means taking the truths God has given to heart until they become a living spring within that refreshes souls ready to perish. God gives wisdom to share these blessings rightly, making believers channels who communicate His wisdom and understanding and reveal His character and attributes to others. Representing Christ by patience, courage and steadfast integrity makes daily life a bright light that wins respect even from enemies of the doctrine, leads many to believe the truth advocated, and gives even simple words power to carry conviction to hearts.
Christ has opened this fountain for a sinful, suffering world, and its water of life is freely offered to all who thirst and are willing to come. The invitation to come and freely drink is to be proclaimed by women and men, by every believer and by God's messengers, so the message reaches even the earth's waste places. When what obstructs the Holy Spirit's work is removed, God pours these waters in abundance through human channels, so consecrated workers bring salvation to many. Those longing for spiritual help are to receive this water from Christ and give it to those in need.
Those who study redemption are to drink deeply, with Jesus dwelling within as a well of water springing up to everlasting life. The soul converted from love of the world and worship of earthly treasure discovers these wells in Jesus Christ and His Word, hungers for the Word holding treasures to be constantly sought and constantly satisfying, draws continually in faith, appropriates for self and communicates to others without diminishing the supply, and drinking the water Christ gives it becomes in him a well springing up into everlasting life. Drawing water means drawing men to the well with the power of the whole heavenly host, given to everyone believing in Jesus as personal Saviour, imparting the divine nature with all power promised, overcoming the adversary and gaining entrance into the city of God whose gates are thrown open. Drinking deeply is also becoming partakers of the divine nature.
Receiving salvation freely calls for joyful, wholehearted enthusiasm in service and rejoicing in worship, not cold indifference like marble statues, but being deeply moved and excited by the grand ennobling theme of salvation. This means warm enthusiasm and festivals of rejoicing unto the Lord in school and church, and a gathering may thus receive spiritual renewal, rejoice in God and praise the Redeemer. When Christ's presence is acknowledged, darkness flees, light shines, and hearts are drawn to God as they freely receive the water of life offered to all who are athirst and will come.
The water is the gospel message, the bread of life and spiritual food that souls hungry for truth need in order to live. Those who do not know God in America, including the unwarned in large cities and in the Southern field, are starving for this water, their cries ascend to God, and many go to the grave without it while means are tied up in lands, elegant mansions and costly monuments over the dead. By Word and providence God commands carrying this water to their relief, and professed children of God who withhold it leave their spiritual energies paralyzed. The water must also be offered with temporal food to men and women continued in sin, with those preparing food devising means to arrest attention, warn of danger and give the bread of life in soul-saving work drawing souls to Christ, for without this spiritual work means and talent are spent to consume without producing and temporal food alone is not a savor of life unto life.
Perishing souls thirst for this water and starve for the bread of life, crying for help out of Christ while those joined to Christ feed upon the Word of life. Believers must not sit content with truth for themselves while others are in darkness cherishing delusions and believing a lie, but must feel the burden to carry precious truth to them and invite them to come to Christ for salvation. Those who receive this saving gift drawn from Christ like water from a spring are to be encouraged to serve Him and share truth with others.