THE Jews' Feast of Tabernacles, their most auspicious religious festival, had come and gone, leaving behind it souls still dissatisfied and empty; for how could that which had degenerated into a Jews' Feast satisfy the spiritual cravings of an immortal soul? Impossible! In its last and greatest day, when the tide should have run its fullest, and hearts should have been gladdest, "Jesus stood and cried, saying, 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)).
At that very point, when thirst should have been unknown, He, who knows all things, stood and "cried"— presenting Himself in the most open manner to public gaze, and calling loudly so that all might hear—"If any man thirst." There was immense applicability in this loud and earnest “cry." Men were about to return home from this significant feast, and ought to have carried away hearts overflowing with joy. But the very opposite had been the case. Their hearts were still empty, their souls still unblessed. Thirst, biting thirst, would they but allow it, marked them still. They had gone to a cistern that contained Do water—to that which was but a shadow—to that which only foretold a brilliant future day—but to that which, therefore, could not satisfy for the present.
How could, how can, a mere external form of religion, however rich and profound, however impressive and significant, meet the deep inward need of the soul? It may affect the senses, and solemnize the mind; but another power is required to reach the conscience, and touch the heart!
And, hence, dear reader, I ask you to look beyond the external drapery of Christianity, the splendid and sensuous ceremonies that are increasingly flaunted before the eye, beautiful perhaps in themselves, but absolutely incapable of penetrating into that inner region where the Spirit of God alone can find saving access. They will only blind and bewilder you. A naked Christ is a thousand times better than a finely arranged form: Turn to Him! “If any man thirst." Yes, there was thirst after all, and they knew it, but Jesus graciously cried to “any man" that thirsted— "any man! any man!"—to come to Him and drink Satiety, full, present, and for evermore, would be the portion of "any man" who came to Him! Thank God for such a fact. The believer in Jesus would get the Holy Ghost—the Spirit of God—to dwell within him,—sent from on high whenever Jesus should be glorified! Wonderful fact, but fact it is, else how could the child of God say "Abba, Father"?
Again, thank God for such a fact. We know it in blest experience, and our biting soul-thirst is gone forever!
Jesus can do what no Jewish feast could, what no mere religious form ever can!
Oh that people would be persuaded to come to Jesus, and to come in their need, their guilt, their ruin, their blindness! He would meet it all, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.”
"Jesus stood and cried" whilst He gave out this invitation. His action implied great earnestness.
"He cried," —He called out aloud! Only on two other occasions, in this Gospel of John, did He thus cry. First, in this chapter, where in verse 28 He "cried" in the temple, saying to His opponents, “Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am.” They had just said, disparagingly, that they knew Him whence He was. They looked upon Him only as Jesus of Nazareth, and cared not to make further inquiry. Theirs was the knowledge of indifference.
Still, in that sense, they did know Him. Yet, would they but allow it, they had also the inward conviction of His being much more,—they both knew Him and whence He was. Conscience often knows more than we admit. Jesus charged them with this conviction of conscience, and He charged them boldly,—He "cried" to that effect.
A conscience gagged and muzzled is a fearful burden; it needs a bold exposure.
Again, in chapter 12:44, “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me." Read on to verse 50.
Now this was His last public appeal to the world. He spoke much to the disciples afterward, but this "cry" closed His testimony to the world.
If a man refuse this testimony, all is over with him,—" The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Then the curtain, as it were, drops, and the sinner is brought face to face with the judgment of the last day But the warning "cry" is as earnest as any.
The awful verities of future judgment were no trifle to Him. They meant to Him all that He said.
Man may ignore or lessen its severity, may endeavor to explain the truth about it away, may affect to view it as an empty threat or an impossibility. Not so did the Lord. Jesus. Ah, reader, hearken to His earnest loud "cry" of warning; hearken to His loud "cry" of invitation that you should come to Him and drink; hearken to the loud "cry" that tells of the glory of His person,—who He is and whence He came,—that you may be wise unto salvation, that you may know His love, and follow in His footsteps.