IT WAS at a children’s meeting and two young girls, who were sisters, stayed behind after the service. I had been speaking from the words: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water... “whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” John 4:10,13,1410Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. (John 4:10)
13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:13‑14).
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, sang, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” John 7:3737In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. (John 7:37).
A friend asked these two girls why they stayed. The youngest answered with deep earnestness: “We want the water of life that Jesus has promised to give.”
That morning they both came to Jesus, and their soul-thirst was satisfied. Oh, what a happy day it was for them!
Some months passed away and then my friend received a letter from one of them, in which she said, “We are still drinking the water of life.”
Suppose three little boys, each holding an empty cup in his hand, said that they were very thirsty. The one, being very poor, held a tin cup; the next, quite well dressed, held in his hand a sparkling silver cup; and the third, being a king’s son, held a magnificent gold cup. But suppose the three cups were quite EMPTY. Would the little prince with his gold’ cup be able to quench his thirst any’ more than the poor boy with his tint cup? No, he would not.
Now the world has a great variety of cups for thirsty souls to drink from, but they are all empty, and therefore, can never satisfy; the pleasures of the world are empty pleasures, and “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” But Jesus satisfies the longing soul, and “filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalms 107:99For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. (Psalm 107:9).
A faithful evangelist years ago was asked if he would come to a big city and hold some meetings for “the miserably poor.”
“Yes,” he replied, “and for the miserably rich too.”
As pleasures and amusement cannot satisfy any child’s soul and having great riches cannot quench soul-thirst, neither can education and great accomplishments they are all empty cups, and if you try to drink from them, you must of course be bitterly disappointed.
But the Lord Jesus will never disappoint you, and if you come to Him just as you are in your sins, He will put those sins all away, He will make you satisfied and happy forever.
“Walk as children of light.”
ML-08/17/1969