iv. THE THIRST OF GOD. 65 



imperilled. His heart was disconsolate when He saw 

 how unsuccessful had been His mission. Wearied and 

 dejected more by the cruel hardness of men's hearts 

 than by the tropical fierceness of the sun and His own 

 physical wants; athirst more for the saving of men's 

 souls than for the water of any earthly well, we can 

 imagine how the successful result of this interview must 

 have cheered Him. Rejected by His own people, He 

 was welcomed by this Samaritan stranger. And there 

 was a gentleness and winningness about His whole man- 

 ner to her, which shows how much she had touched 

 His heart, how intensely personal and individual was 

 the interest which He felt in her. We realize as we 

 gaze and listen how near Jesus has come to us ; how 

 truly He is our brother. He had indeed drink as well 

 as meat which the world knew not of. His spirit, 

 revived and strengthened by heavenly influences, bore 

 up the sinking body; and the joy of bringing back 

 this poor lost sheep to the fold was to Him as the 

 sweetness of water to the parched lip. She had not 

 given Him to drink from Jacob's well, but she gave 

 Him to drink the joy of saving and blessing her. This 

 was the true water that He wanted when He said to 

 her, "Give me to drink." The natural was but the 

 type of the spiritual. 



The whole incident is an acted parable of the Gospel. 

 The words of Jesus, "Give me to drink," are an expres- 

 sion of the thirst of God. We are accustomed to speak 

 about the thirst of man, and deem it an all-important 

 thing that his thirst should be satisfied. But we hardly 



