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SERMON I.

THE WELL OF LIFE.

JOHN iv. 13, 14, 15.

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again : but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

"WHOSOEVER drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." These are strange words for one to utter who had just before begged for a draught of water

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himself: strange words for a lone wayfarer, who sat by the well-side exhausted and travel worn, and imploring after this manner, "Give me to drink," of the first chance visitant who came to draw; it is surely strange that he should undertake to relieve others for ever from those very wants and infirmities, under which he himself was at that same moment fainting! Well might this appear somewhat inconsistent to the woman of Sychar, and well might she ask, " "From whence then hast thou that living water?"

And how shall we, my brethren, account for this strangeness, and reconcile this inconsistency, if we are dissatisfied with the explanation which appears upon the face of the Gospel declarations? Here sits one who, we are assured, is suffering under the commonest of all human infirmities, viz. fatigue after exertion. This circumstance is announced, not with the artfulness and care of a writer who was intending to hang some doctrine upon it, but with the incidental undesignedness "Now Jacob's well was

of simple truth.

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