iv. THE THIRST OF GOD. 71 



ings of God brought in a bodily form within the limits 

 of our senses. The appearing of Jesus as the God-Man 

 declares the infinite love of the Father; a love that has 

 a great want at the heart of it, that misses something 

 infinitely dear to it, and for the sake of that something 

 is willing to endure any toil, and to make any sacrifice. 

 Jesus suffered on account of human sin, to show to us 

 how the Father suffers because of our sin ; how dreadful 

 has been the burden upon Him through all the ages of 

 the wrong and anguish with which human sin has filled 

 the world ! Jesus thirsted beside the well of Sychar to 

 show to us that thus God thirsts for our recovery from 

 our state of sin and misery. He who from the begin- 

 ning, as the Head of His great house the universe, and 

 as' such has felt most sorely all its evils and sorrows, 

 says to us, as Jesus said to the ignorant, sinful woman 

 of Samaria, in the greatness and eagerness of His thirst, 

 with pleading voice and gesture, with infinite love in 

 every look and tone " Give me to drink." 



The physical attitude of Jesus beside the well of 

 Sychar is the type of His spiritual attitude beside the 

 well of salvation. What He was then He is now, for 

 He is " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and 

 for ever." Weary, faint, as it were, after that finished 

 work of redemption which cost Him so much a Lamb 

 as it had been slain, He has sat down beside the well 

 of salvation which His own hands have dug in the 

 wilderness and His own grace hath filled, and He says 

 to every unsatisfied soul, to every thirsty one that comes 

 to the means of grace to draw water " Give me to 



