Quiet Talks on Power | Page 5

like those of this seventh chapter of John. It was at the time
of Feast of Tabernacles. There was a vast multitude of Jews there from
all parts of the world. It was like an immense convention, but larger
than any convention we know. The people were not entertained in the
homes, but lived for seven days in leafy booths made of branches of
trees. It was the last day of the feast. There was a large concourse of
people gathered in one of the temple areas; not women, but men; not
sitting, but standing. Up yonder stand the priests, pouring water out of
large jars, to symbolize the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the
nation of Israel. Just then Jesus speaks, and amid the silence of the
intently watching throng His voice rings out: "If any man thirst let him
come unto Me and drink; he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Mark that significant
closing clause. That packs into a sentence Jesus' ideal of what a true
christian down in this world should be, and may be. Every word is full
of meaning.
The heart of the sentence is in the last word--"water." Water is an
essential of life. Absence of water means suffering and sickness, dearth
and death. Plenty of good water means life. All the history of the world
clusters about the water courses. Study the history of the rivers, the
seashores, and lake edges, and you know the history of the earth. Those
men who heard Jesus speak would instinctively think of the Jordan. It
was their river. Travelers say that no valley exceeded in beauty and
fruitfulness that valley of the Jordan, made so by those swift waters. No
hillside so fair in their green beauty, nor so wealthy in heavy loads of
fruit as those sloping down to the edge of that stream. Now plainly
Jesus is talking of something that may, through us, exert as decided an
influence upon the lives of those we touch as water has exerted, and
still exerts, on the history of the earth, and as this Jordan did in that
wonderful, historic Palestine. Mark the quantity of water--"rivers." Not
a Jordan merely, that would be wonderful enough, but Jordans--a

Jordan, and a Nile, and a Euphrates, a Yang Tse Kiang, and an Olga
and a Rhine, a Seine and a Thames, and a Hudson and an
Ohio--"rivers." Notice, too, the kind of water. Like this racing,
turbulent, muddy Jordan? No, no! "rivers of living water," "water of life,
clear as crystal." You remember in Ezekiel's vision which we read
together that the waters constantly increased in depth, and that
everywhere they went there was healing, and abundant life, and
prosperity, and beauty, and food, and a continual harvest the year round,
and all because of the waters of the river. They were veritable waters of
life.
Now mark that little, but very significant, phrase--"Out of"--not into,
but "out of." All the difference in the lives of men lies in the difference
between these two expressions. "Into" is the world's preposition. Every
stream turns in; and that means a dead sea. Many a man's life is simply
the coast line of a dead sea. "Out of" is the Master's word. His thought
is of others. The stream must flow in, and must flow through, if it is to
flow out, but it is judged by its direction, and Jesus would turn it
outward. There must be good connections upward, and a clear channel
inward, but the objective point is outward toward a parched earth. But
before it can flow out it must fill up. An outflow in this case means an
overflow. There must be a flooding inside before there can be a flowing
out. And let the fact be carefully marked that it is only the overflow
from the fullness within our own lives that brings refreshing to anyone
else. A man praying at a conference in England for the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit said: "O, Lord, we can't hold much, but we can
overflow lots." That is exactly the Master's thought. "Out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water."
Do you remember that phrase in the third chapter of Joshua--"For
Jordan overfloweth all its banks all the time of harvest." When there
was a flood in the river, there was a harvest in the land. Has there been
a harvest in your life? A harvest of the fruit of the spirit--love, joy,
peace, long-suffering; a harvest of souls? "No," do you say, "not much
of a harvest, I am afraid," or it may be your heart says "none at all." Is
it hard to tell why? Has there been a flood-tide