“WELL, Charley,” said May to her brother, "what shall we talk about to-night? After bread comes water, you know.”
“Yes, May; but there can't be much to say about that. Water is water all the world over.”
“Still there is a great deal about water in the Bible," answered May, "and you know that the bread which fell from heaven to feed the Israelites in the desert was not common bread, so I should think the water which came from the dry hard rock for them to drink when they were so thirsty must have been a very wonderful kind of water: wasn't it, Aunt Edith?”
“It was water given them in a very wonderful way," said their aunt. "God who was leading His people, by a way which they knew not, through the pathless wilderness, and who furnished a table for them, giving them daily bread in that hungry, desolate place, knew through what a dry and thirsty land they were traveling, and supplied this want also in His own way. They thirsted not when He led them through the deserts: He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them. He clave the rock, also, and the waters gushed out.”
“Oh, that verse is in my text-book; it is the text for mamma's birthday, and she says she likes it so much, because it reminds her of how God took care of His people so long ago. I should think, auntie, when they saw the bright water come pouring down from the rock, like a beautiful waterfall, the poor thirsty people must have cried for wonder and joy.”
“I daresay they did, as those Greeks did when they reached the top of a hill and saw the sea again, and knew that they were near their homes, and their dangers would soon be over," said Charley. "Do you know, May, they were just as brave men as could be? and yet they cried for joy, and raised such a shout, and hugged each other so. They were quite wild with delight.”
“I suppose," said their aunt, "as we can have no idea of the intense thirst which those suffer who are traveling on and on under the burning sun of the desert, so we can but guess at the joy with which a desert fountain is hailed by man and beast. It is said that the camels are often the first to scent the water from afar, and that, if allowed to take their own course, they will run in the direction of the spring, and never stop until they reach it.”
“I know the hymn says—
“‘The scent of water far away
Upon the breeze is flung’
but I can't imagine being able to smell water, though I know you can smell salt water, even quite a long way off, before you can catch a glimpse of the sea.”
“You must remember, Charley, that your sense of smell has never been quickened by the parching thirst and feverish longing for a drop of water, which too often are experienced by travelers in hot countries. In the East water is a very precious thing. Have you ever noticed how often wells are spoken of in the Old Testament, and what interesting scenes took place in their neighborhood?”
“Oh yes, Aunt Edith; let me see which is the first I can think of? There was the well in the desert, which God showed Hagar when the water was spent in the bottle, and she had not a drop to give her child.”
“God made ‘rivers in the desert’ for her," said May, "as well as for the Israelites.”
“Yes, Charley," said Aunt Edith, "I was thinking of that well; the scene is touching and beautiful indeed. How desolate the outcast mother must have felt when she cast her, son down under one of the low-growing desert shrubs, and went to sit, in her despair, 'a good, way off,' for she said, 'let me not see the death of the child!' In that Ione wilderness Hagar lifted up her voice and wept, but perhaps with a sad feeling at her heart that there was no one near to hear her cry or to aid her." .
“But God heard her cry, Auntie-He does, always.”
“Yes, God's ear is ever open to the faintest cry of His creatures. The very name of her cherished one, Ishmael, might have reminded Hagar of a time when, before this son was born, she was found in her fear and sorrow, by the angel of Jehovah, and was told, as, she stood beside a desert fountain, that this son was to be named Ishmael, 'God shall hear,' because Jehovah had heard her affliction.”
“It says, 'God heard the voice of the lad;' I wonder whether Ishmael knew the meaning of his name, and whether he prayed to God when he thought he was dying, all alone.”
“We cannot tell, Charley, What thoughts passed through the boy's mind; but it is well for us that God does not wait until they cry to Him to come to the help of those who are in trouble. It is not only written ‘Call unto me and I will answer thee,’ but ‘Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hear.’”
“How Hagar must have wondered when she heard a voice fall from heaven, and found that God was speaking to her, and that He knew all about her, and about Ishmael, too!”
“Those words, ‘Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is!’ were given as words of comfort to another poor mother, May—a mother whose boy was lost in the wilderness of this world—gone she knew not where.”
“Oh, do tell us about him. How did he get lost?”
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Oh, I know his mother would want him to come home as fast as the boat could carry him; but how did the gentleman find him, so far away?”
“He was driving along a country road, May, when he noticed a boy sitting by the wayside, with a weary, hopeless look on his young face. Stopping his horse, the gentleman asked the lad to come and sit beside him. They drove on, and before very long the poor boy had told the kind stranger all his sad story, and so the lost son was brought back. The tale of his wanderings over sea and land, and his many trials and hardships, was very sad, but his mother's God had never for one moment forgotten him; he might wander far, but not so far as to be beyond the reach of Him who ever followed him with love and pity, and brought him borne at last.”
“I see," said May, "it was God who put it into that gentleman's mind to care for the boy, when perhaps Herbert was not thinking of Him at all, only feeling lonely, and poor, and perhaps hungry. But, Aunt Edith, when Hagar's eyes were opened to see the fountain, and she went and filled her bottle and gave her son drink, do you think that bottle was one like ours? It would not hold much water, I am afraid, if it was.”
“It is probable that Hagar carried a water-bag, made from the skin of a goat or kid. Such skins are still prepared in Palestine and Egypt. The large bottles are made from goat-skins; smaller ones, made from the skins of kids, may often be seen hanging from the saddle, as a traveler rides past; and very large ones, made from the skins of oxen, are laid across the camels' backs when a caravan starts for the journey across the desert.”
“How very strange these bottles must look!”
“I am sure you would say so, May, if you could see them, for when filled with water the skins again take the shape of the animals to which they belonged.”
“I have heard Uncle Alfred say the water-carriers at Cairo carry the water in skin bottles; but it seemed to me the water must be very disagreeable after being kept in the skin of some animal.”
“You must not forget, Charley, that the skins are most carefully prepared; indeed, I have read that the process of cleansing a skin intended for a water-bottle occupies more than a month,-but when ready, it will keep the water fresh and sweet, and is very easily carried, as of course it may be laid on an ass's back without any danger of its being broken. The head and feet of the animal are cut off; the neck forms the mouth of the bottle, and every other aperture is carefully sewn up with waxed thread.”
Uncle Alfred told me that one water-carrier at Cairo had a bottle with a long brass spout, and poured the water into a brass cup; and he said that although the poor man had to bring the water from a place more than two miles away, he did not ask any price for it (although people might pay if they chose), but cried constantly, as he passed along, ‘May God compensate me!’
“Another of the street cries in the East is ‘Oh, ye thirsty, water!’ and travelers tell us that when at Cairo they have often heard the voice of a man who used to go about with his water-skins, crying, ‘The gift of God! The gift of God!’”
“That was just what Jesus called the living water, which He gives, when He was speaking to the woman of Samaria—'the gift of God,'" said Charley.
“The other cry may remind us of the invitation to take God's free gift, with which the 55th chapter of Isaiah begins: He, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters';-blessed words, which have led many a thirsty soul in this desert-world to come and take of the water of life freely.”
“When the Lord Jesus was in this world it was as if there was a well to which anyone might come, for He said, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink,’" said May, thoughtfully.
“So we read, dear children, of the rock which, on being smitten, became a fountain of living water, springing up in the midst of the wilderness that the Israelites might drink—'That rock was Christ.' How wonderful it is to think that it is from the smitten Rock that the water of life flows now for every poor thirsty one who will come and drink. Let us ask God to teach us to love the blessed Lord Jesus, who has loved us unto death;
"‘Remembering how, amid our toil,
Our conflict and our sin,
He brought the water for our thirst,
It cost His blood to win.'
If we are all at home to-morrow evening we will talk about some other wells mentioned in the Bible, but we must say good-night now.”