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"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."-Isa. lv. 1.

HERE is a thirst which is peculiar to the believer. He can say with David-"As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." Delightful thirst! Would God we had more of it! May we be longing and panting after our God in that sense until we shall be filled with his Spirit, and shall dwell in his presence to go no more out for ever. But I wish now to speak of another kind of thirst to another class of thirsting ones, who thirst they scarcely know for what. They have a sense of unrest, of longing, of yearning, yet they have a very indistinct idea of what it is their souls are pining for. It may be they will find out presently what it is their thirst requires. Better still, if mayhap, by God's blessing, that thirst shall be quenched by their drinking that living water of which they are bidden freely to take.

I shall not detain you with a long preface, nor, indeed, with a long discourse. I will try to make each

portion of my address brief, practical, and pointed. May the Holy Ghost make it effectual.

Learn from my text that God has made plenteous soul-provision; and that to every thirsty soul this provision is perfectly free and gratuitous.

I. In the first place GOD HAS MADE AN ABUNDANT

SOUL-PROVISION.

We read here of "water." Water has been pronounced the simplest, purest, fittest drink for all persons of all ages and temperaments. Now, there is a thirst in man's body which makes him require drink. He drinks, and that thirst is removed. There is a similar thirst in man's spiritual nature. He wants something, and he feels uneasy until he gets it. The grace of God, which is proclaimed to us in Christ Jesus, is that which meets the longing of man. That is the spiritual water for man's spiritual thirst. In the text the word is put in the plural, "Come ye to the waters," I suppose to show the abundance thereof, as though there were many rivers of it, so that none might fear that they should require more than was provided.

"Great God, the treasures of thy love

Are everlasting mines;

Deep as our greatest miseries are,

And boundless as our sins."

The mercy of God is not a little brook which can be almost drained up by a passing ox, but it is a vast river -it is many rivers, rivers to swim in. Ho, every one that thirsteth! stand not back because ye think there is not enough, but come ye to the waters.

Or the word may be in the plural to signify variety. The soul wants many things. Viewing eternity, and

God, and judgment, from different points of view, it needs manifold and multitudinous mercies. They are all provided, and the word "waters" indicates that many fresh springs of consolation are ready for those who thirst for all spiritual blessings as soon as the eye sees or the ear hears tell of them. You need not fear if you want the pardon of sin, or the renewal of your nature, or guidance in perplexity or comfort in distress, you need not fear but what you shall find it. "Come ye to the waters." There is an infinite variety in the grace of God. He is called "the God of all grace." All the grace that all the sinners that ever come to him can want, they shall find stored up in the gospel provisions of the covenant of grace. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," for God has provided for soul-needs in plentiful abundance and endless variety.

Now, are you thirsting? It surely is not the mere play of imagination, but the sober apprehension of a fact, that convinces me there are persons here who are thirsting in a spiritual sense. Methinks one of them says, "I thirst, I thirst to have my sins forgiven, and to be reconciled to God; I know that I have done wrong; for me to plead that I have been innocent would be to add a lie to all my other iniquities; I am sensible in my inmost heart that I have, both by omission and commission, transgressed the divine law; I deserve punishment, but I would that by some means I might be put into the divine favour; I cannot bear to think that God should be angry with me every day; once I laughed at this, but now I feel its meaning, and it is like an arrow sticking in my loins. Oh,

that I could have my Maker to be my friend! I cannot fight out the battle with him; he could crush me in a moment; I would, therefore, cast down the weapons of my rebellion, and be reconciled to him." Come, then, thou thirsty one, come and have what thou wantest! Come and put thy trust in Jesus, and thy sin is forgiven, and thou art reconciled; for, far off as thou art, thou shalt be brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Dost thou know how? It is thus-God must punish sin: thy sin has incurred his penalty; but he exacted thy debt of thy surety. He punished Jesus for thy sins which thou hast committed if so be thou believest in Jesus as thy substitute. He endured, that thou mightest never endure, the whole of the divine wrath; God now, therefore, can, without marring his justice, reconcile to himself the offending sinner, be agreed with him, receive him into friendship, ay, receive him into sonship, and adopt him as his child. That troubled conscience of yours will soon have peace if you will but trust in the bleeding sacrifice of the Lamb of God for sinners slain. Put your hands upon his dear head, once crowned with thorns for thee, and thou shalt prove that God is thy friend, and know that thy sin is forgiven. Ho, every one that thirsteth for pardon and for reconciliation, come ye to the waters, and have there your desire.

I think I hear another say, "I desire that selfsame blessing, but I want something more; I want to conquer the sin that dwelleth in me; I want to be pure and holy; I cannot bear to be in the future what I have been in the past; I feel the chains of habit that bind me; I want to snap them off. I would no

longer be an example of vice; I want to be a pattern of everything that is lovely and of good repute; but I have struggled against sin, and it gets the mastery over me; I do for a time escape, but still I bear my fetters upon me, and am dragged back to my prison. I cannot be what I would; oh, that I could escape from the power of sin!" Ah, thou thirsty one, it is a blessed thing to desire as thou desirest; and let me tell thee that God will give thee the desire of thine heart, for Jesus died that he might deliver his people from the power of Satan. He came on purpose that he might destroy the power of sin in his people, and make them so free that they should not serve sin, but become a people zealous for good works. If thou wilt come to Jesus, and simply believe in him, that is, rely upon him, trust him, his grace will come and refine thee, implanting a new nature, taking away the heart of stone, and giving a heart of flesh, and thou shalt yet put thy foot upon the neck of all thy corruptions; thou shalt cast them out by little and by little, and thou shalt be made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Ho, every one that thirsteth for purity and virtue, and for victory over indwelling sin, let him come to the waters that flowed with the blood from Jesus' side, and let him taste, and his thirst shall be appeased for ever.

In some persons this soul-thirst takes the shape of an anxious desire for perseverance and security. "I would like," says one, "oh, how I would like to know myself saved, and so saved that I never can be lost! Would that I could get on the rock and feel the steadfastness of my refuge, that I might be able to sing

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