Connecticut western news., 1890-11-19
WHERE JACOB DIGGED A WE'LL.


 , q But here we found ourselves at Jacobs well, the most famous we'll in history, most distinguished for two things, because it belonged to the old patriarch after whom it was named, and for the wonderful things which Christ said, seated on this we'll curb to the Samaritan woman. We dismount from our horses in a drizzling rain, and our dragoman climbing up to the we'll over the slippery stones, stumbles and frightens us all by nearly falling into it.
 l measured the well at the top and found it six feet from edge to edge. Some grass and weeds and thorny growths overhang it. In one place the roof is broken through. Large stones embank the wall on all sides.
 Our dragoman took pebbles and dropped them in, and from the time they left his hand to the instant they clicked on the bottom you could hear it was deep, through not as deep as once, for every day travellers are ap- plying the same test, and though ill the time of Maundrell, the traveller, the we'll was hundred and sixty-five feet deep, now it is only seventy five. So great is the curiosity of the world to know about that well that during the dry season Capt Anderson descended into this well, at one place the sides so close he had to put his hands over his head in order to get through and then he tainted away, and lay at the bottom of the we'll as though dead until, hours after his recovery, he came to the sur face
 It is not like other wells, digged down to fountain that fills it, but reser- voir to catch the falling rains and to that Christ refers when speaking to the Samaritan woman about a spiritual supply he said that he would, if asked. have given her living water;' that is, water from flowing spring in dis tinction from the water of that well which was rain water But why did Jacob, make a reservoir there when there is plenty of water all around and abundance of springs and fountains and seemingly no need of that reser- voir2 Why did Jacob go to the vast expense of boring and digging a we'll perhaps two hundred feet deep as first completed, when, by going little way off, he could have water from other fountains at little or no expense. An, Jacob was wise! He wanted his own we'll. Quarrels and wars might arise with other tribes and the supply of water might be cut off, so the shovels and pickaxes and boring instruments were ordered and the well of nearly four thousand years ago was sunk through the solid rock
 SEEK YE FOR LIVING WATERS.
 When Jacob thus wisely insisted on having his OVID we'll he taught us not to be unnecessarily dependent on oth- CTS. Independence of business charac- ter. Independence of moral character. Independence of religious character. Have your own we'll of grace, your own well of courage, your own well of di- vine supply. If you are an invalid you have a right to be dependent on others
 But if God has given you good health, common sense and two eyes and two ears and two hands and two feet, he equipped you for independence of all the universe except himself If he had meant you to be dependent on others you would have been built with cord around your waist to tie fast to some body else. No; you are built with common sense to fashion your own opinions, with eyes to find your own way, with ears to select your own mu- sic, with hands to fight your own bat ties. There is only one being in the universe whose advice you need, and that is God. Have your own well and the Lord will fill it. Dig it if need be through two hundred feet of solid rock. Dig it with your pen, or dig it with your yardstick, or dig it with your shovel, or dig it with your Bible.
 In my small way I never accom- plished anything for God, or the church.
 or the world, or my family, or myself except in contradiction to human ad- vice and in obedience to divine coun- sel. God knows everything, and what is the use of going for advice to human beings who know so little that no one but the all seeing God can realize how little it is9 I suppose that when Jacob began to dig this we'll on which we are sitting this noontime people gathered around and said, .'What. a useless ex- pense you are going to, when rolling down from yonder Mount Gerizim and down from yonder Mount Ebal and out wonder in the valley is plenty of water" "Oh," replied Jacob, ''that is all true; but suppose my neighbors should get angered against me, and cut off my supply of mountain beverage, what would do, and what would my family do and what would my f1ocks and herds do2 Forward, ye brigade of pickaxes and crowbars, and go down into the depths of these rocks, and make me independent of all except him who fills the bottles of the clouds! I must have my own well!'
 Young man, drop cigars and cigar cites and wine cups and the Sunday excursions, and build your own house and have your own wardrobe and be your own capitalist! >"Why, I have only five hundred dollars income a year" says some one. Then spend four Hundred dollars of it in living, and ten per cent. of it or fifty dollars in be
 nevoience, and the other fifty in begin ming to dig your own well. Or, if you have thousand dollars a year, spend eight hundred dollars of it in living, ten per cent. or one hundred dollars in benevolence, and the remaining one hundred in beginning to dig your own we'll The largest bird that ever flew through the air was matched out of one egg, and the greatest estate was brood