As I passed along a road I came to a place where stood a pump; it was a hot day, and, laboring at its handle, stood one with a pitcher. A little way on I observed a spring by the wayside, which continually welled up its refreshing water. The toil and the effort necessary to procure the water in the one case, and the ease of its flow in the other, had the voice of a parable. Out of some of God’s people flows, without effort, the refreshing stream of living water spontaneously, like the spring; from others come, with all their effort, but a few drops now and then. Christian reader, you must apply the parable to your own case.