Our soldiers in Italy are exposed now to the rigors of winter. Our picture shows the difficulty sometimes of getting water. A hole has been made in the ice to get at the precious water.
I remember when in the East going from Jericho and the Dead Sea. We had started about three o’clock in the morning, but the heat was terrific, and we could get no water. When we got to the Convent of Mar Saba, we could scarcely speak for exhaustion and thirst. Fortunately, some monks of Mar Saba were returning home with beautiful water in tin pails. They generously allowed us to drink as much as we liked. Never in my life have I had so sweet a draft. What must it be to have a thirst that can never be slaked—to be like the rich man down in hell, praying for a drop, one drop of water, to cool his burning tongue, tormented in the flame. O sinner flee from the wrath to come. How gladly we assuaged our thirst with the cool water at Mar Saba offered by the monks. Your soul thirst can he quenched forever with the water of life. which Christ will give you. He says, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shalt 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.”
From the smitten rock in the desert the water came forth to refresh the thirsty Israelites. From the smitten “Rock of Ages” on Calvary, the water of life flows freely out to all mankind, and the invitation is: “Whosoever will, let him drink of the water of life freely.” Can you say:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Grace has hid me safe in Thee,
Where the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Are of sin the double cure,
Cleansing from its guilt and power.