Water is necessary to life, and Christ uses it as an emblem of salvation. Let God withhold water from our earth, even for a little time, and what a state of wretchedness would result. A wild cry of indescribable woe would come from the suffering inhabitants. How much more terrible would be the result, if the light of truth, which is essential to the health and life of the soul, were withheld! Many in this world of mortality are perishing for the water of life. The loss of the natural life is not so lamentable; but the loss of that life which is eternal, which measures with the life of God, is terrible to contemplate; this is an eternal loss. Then why is there so great indifference? Why are those who have a knowledge of Jesus Christ resting at ease? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if a man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them. Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” Now mark the explanation of this statement clothed in such mystery: “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” May these words be carefully pondered, for they are of deep import. First, we can have no living connection with Christ unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood. We are to come into as close relationship to Christ as the branches bear to the vine; for as the sap, flowing through the parent stalk, is taken up by the branches, and nourishes them, so every word that proceeds from God gives life to the child of God. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” All who are doers of the word will be one with Christ, and will walk with God, as did Enoch. Christ has identified his interests with those of suffering humanity; and he has shown how much he estimates the worth of the soul, in that he left all the glory and honor he had enjoyed in heaven, and for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. He came to our world to suffer reproach, mockery, rejection, and crucifixion, that he might bring salvation within the reach of all,—the rich and the poor, the high and the low. What, I ask you, are we who have been so highly favored by the Son of God, doing toward accomplishing the work left us to do,—that of bringing the light to others, that they may have eternal life? What are we doing to save our fellow-men? The Saviour declares, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Without Christ the soul is “dead in trespasses and sins,” and unless it shall become one with Christ, and be quickened by the grace of God, it must be lost. It is important for each individual to know that he is abiding in Christ. If we are indeed in Christ, we shall have a deep, settled purpose to do all that is in our power to reveal the truth to those who are far off, and to those who are near. Christ says to his followers, “Ye are the light of the world.” Having a knowledge of the truth ourselves, we must practice its principles, or it will be only a curse to sink us deeper in perdition. We must not only be prayerful, and anxious to know what is right, but we must love to do the right. God is life, and love, and light. The gospel of truth, emanating from God, must be appropriated by his followers, as the branch appropriates the nourishment in the sap flowing from the true vine. The mind and heart will then be, not only enlightened, but cleansed and purified. All who are abiding in Christ will do the work of Christ. The earnest invitation comes down along the lines to our time, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely;” and it embraces all,—young and old, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, bond and free. What are we doing to proclaim Christ to the world? What sacrifices are we making to second his ...
