The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-02-20

II
| 20 the mighty deep And II you listen al.
| tentlyely TO your own heart YOU win find
/ constant proofs of its destined abode. The
/ signs, the yearninga, the dreams. the tears.
the sadness, the music. all testify that we
are made for God. and that only God can
satisfy our wants And God knew this
ana so. ne well as giving as the south land
| lie has also given as the springs of water
! from which we may drink and be satisfied
700 pity the man who has failed to accept
the proliered gift
H. The springs Of water were given 10
| Achsah because of her marriage with 9th
mel, and they are a perfect illustration Of
that which comes TO as because of our
union with the Son Of God The springs
were free gift, and % Is the neither spring
Of the gospel, which has come to US. 'For
by grace are ye saved through faith, and
that not OF yourselves: it Is the gift Of
And never a spring bursting from the
plains Of Gerar, or from the mountains of
Lebanon, or from the valleys of Canaan,
perform such a mission as this neither
spring OF the gospel which is the gift Of
our God.
We have seen the fields in the time of
a drought looking parched and apparently
dead and worthless, and then suddenly,
almost in the night, the meadows were
clothed with green, and the grain lifted
up its head rejoicing, all because the rain
had fallen, But In this neither spring OF
the gospel there is more marvellous
power than that-he who comes 10 drink
Of Its waters goes away with new life, and
his whole nature is changed. The am
clients believed in the existence of spring
in which, if a person bathed, he would
renew his youth and live forever. We
have found that spring to-day in the text,
Tor The gift of God is eternal life" "The
Bible Is all a-sparkle with wells and
springs, rivers and seas. They toss up their
brightness from almost every chapter. And
water IS many times the type or figure Of
that which enlivens, beauties and gives
new life"
& 1lomon, refreshed by the story of
R.ven, exclaims, CAS- cold water to a
tR -Sty soul, so is good news from a far
co iry." Isaiah, speaking Of the blessed
neSs OF the children of God, writes, "They
shall sprseg as willows from the water
courses" The prophet glowing with the
thought OF the millennium, says, Streams
shall break forth from the desert"
The mission, c' yater in this world is to
bless and 2 =, refresh and help. "But
all the y - that ever leaped in the tor
rents, - Aned in the cascade, OF fell in
the .er shower or hung in the morn
8
tE5 Led heart, no such rest and refresh
TIib5 to the siu-sick soul, as that which
a Z be drawn by you and by me from the
ner spring of the gospel"
i t is good type of illustration of the
n >spel because of its brightness. Yet here
fails of giving us perfect description or
t dea, for. where can you find such bright
mess as CLEANS in this neither spring?
David, unable to put it into words,
plays it on his harp. Christopher Wren,
unable to put it into language, springs it
in the arches of st. Pauls. Bunyan, fail
ing to- present it in ordinary story. put it
in the form of allegory, which lives on to-
day with constantly increasing power.
Handel. with ordinary music unable to
reach the height and sound the depth of
the theme, thrills us with his oratoro."
0, the gladness, the brightness, the Joy I'm.
utterable in that lie which is hid with
Christ in God. And this l may drink in
as | come to the neither springs.
There Is no life on earth so happy as
the Christians. Take the humblest child
of God you know, and why shouldn't he
be happy? According to the Bible he is
all the time under the shadow of Gods
wings. If he walks the angels bear him up;
if he sleeps they let down ladders from the
skies, up and down which the angels 90
to and fro, bringing down blessings of
God, and bearing away his heavy burdens.
Why, to get within the door of the king
dom, to have place, not the nearest, but
on the very outer circle. to bear the lowest
title of all the redeemed, to be the weakest
child Of all the family of God, to be the
dlmmest jewel in His crown Of rejoicing,
to be the least, yea, less than least of all
the saints is a hope which sets the heart
a-singing. All this I find and more
thousand times more, as l stoop and drink
at the neither springs.
Water Is also like the gospel in it's power
to refresh. l remember the River Jordan
the day when Naaman came to its banks
with his leprosy. / see him going down
into its waters, once, twice, three times,
and then on until he had, according to the
instructions of the servant of God bathed
seven times, and then, marvellous change!
hs flesh became as it were the flesh of
little child.
But here is a greater change for the sin,
full soul who will come to the neither
spring. Here came Newton, and left be.
hind him his sins which were as scarlet.
Here came Bunyan, cursing with every
step until lewd people rebuked him, and
he went away, so changed that he gave to
the world the book that stands in the esti-
nation of some next to the Bible for sweet.
ness and power. Here came Magdalen and
the Philippian jailor, Zacchaeus, and the
poor trembling thief on the cross, and they
drank of the waters and stand to-day in
the company of the redeemed.
l stand by the side of the waters to-day,
and with all the tenderness of a saved sin
ner, with all the assurance of q pardoned
child of God, with all the alarm of friend
who sees his friends and neighbors going
down to death, away from the living wat.
ers, bid you come, come, come; "Whoso-
ever win, let him come"
1t is a marvellous spring of which I speak.
l recall the fact that when the Master met
the man who was blind from his birth He
an0inted his eyes with clay and spittle and
then told him to go wash in the pool of
SLOAN; and when he had washed he came
seeing. I imagine that fEt of all he saw