Waters

2Ki_2:19

When the elders of Jericho described to Elisha

their distressed condition, they did so in the
wordsBehold, the situation of this city is
pleasant, but the water is naught, and the
ground is barren. The material facts, thus
combined and contrasted, are very suggestive
to the mind of spiritual conditions. Let us
therefore examine these words more closely.
The situation is pleasant; it appears to
present everything that might render life
happy and prosperous; but it appears that
this great advantage is neutralized by the
barrenness of the ground, where nothing will
grow, where no fruit is brought forth to
perfection; and, seeking the cause of this, we
find it is because the waters are naught. It is
not that there is drought, the usual cause of
sterility in the East; it is not that water is
even scanty, it is abundant; but that they are
bad waterssuch waters as, instead of
sustaining, destroy the powers of vegetation.

Why, this becomes a very parable to us,

touching, with painful force, upon the spiritual
condition of many of us. The situation in
which we stand is pleasant. What more could
the Lord have done for us than he has done?
While so many fair regions of the earth lie in
spiritual darkness, the full and blessed light of
Gods truth shines upon our habitations. We
have the written word of truthwe have the
uttered word of truthone of the first sounds
that entered our infant ears was that name
which is above every name, and in which all
our hope is found; and not a day passes in
which, under some form or other, we may not
see or hear the words of Salvation. What
situation could be more pleasant, more
favorable to our spiritual prospects? Surely
our city stands upon the delectable mountain,
whence on any clear day we may have fair
prospects of the goody land that lies beyond
the swellings of Jordan.
Yet, pleasant as all things seem, it is not well
with us. The ground is barren. The great
Husbandman has plowed it up, with which of
his plows He would; for he has many plows
for different soils. He has cast in the seed
carefully cast it in; and it is good seed,
bursting with ripeness, and he has a right to
expect large returns from itif not sixty-fold,
if not thirty-fold, at least ten. But nothing
comes from it. The seed will not germinate
nothing will grow. Yet the ground is clean and
sweet; for it has been under heavenly tillage,
and the Sun of Righteousness has beamed
warmly on it. What ails it, then? Something is
wrong, or something wanting. It is the waters
that are either bad or deficient. Who shall
heal them? Only God; it is no use to look to
any one else. If they are bad, if they have
been poisoned, and our souls rendered barren
by bitter doctrine, read or heardthere is no
cure till the handful of wholesome salt is cast
in. If they are deficient through the starved
poverty of our faith and lovethere is no help
but in the waters He will send, either in
streams or showers, and which He will send if
earnestly implored; for He is not a
husbandman who forgets the soil He has
tilled, or the seed He has planted.

See how this dry and thirsty land,

Mine heart, doth gaping, gasping
stand,
And, close below, opens towards
heaven and Thee;
Thou fountain of felicity;
Great Lord of living waters, water
me.

If then, He send not his rains, his streams in

abundance, He will send enough to refresh, to
heal, and fertilize.

If not full showers of rain, yet Lord,

A little pearly dew afford.
A little, if it come from Thee,
Will be of great avail to me.

Nothing but this water of Divine grace and

doctrine is wanting to make our situation
pleasant altogetherto render this once
barren ground a very land of Beulah.

O let thy love

Distil in fructifying dews of grace,
And then mine heart will be a
pleasant place.

Such ideas and images derived from water

are entirely scriptural. The remarkable and
almost marvellous effects upon the parched
lands, produced by the coming of water,
whether of rains or streams, in the warm and
dry regions of the earth, quickening into
sudden verdure, beauty and life, that which
lay dead, dreary, and unfruitful, suggests
analogies to the influence of Divine doctrine
upon the soul, and of heavenly grace upon
the heartthe singular beauty and
appropriateness of which are scarcely
appreciable in our moist climate, where the
prime anxiety of our cultivators is not to
obtain water, but to get rid of its
superabundance. But, to such as know the
East, such passages as these speak to the
very heart

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my

speech shall distil as the dew; as the small
rain upon the tender herb, and as the
showers upon the grass. Note: Deu_32:2.

He shall come down like rain on the mown

grass; as showers that water the earth.
Note: Psa_72:6.

I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,

and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour
my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing
upon thine offspring. Note: Isa_44:3.

I will open rivers in high places, and

fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will
make the wilderness a pool of water, and the
dry land springs of water. Note: Isa_41:18.

And then, not to quote morefor there is

muchof the same purport are almost the
last words of ScriptureThe Spirit and the
bride say, Come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whoso ever will, let him take the water of
life freely. Note: Rev_22:17.