muel Kline's
dwelling house. Brother Shively speaks from John 4:14, 15. Text: "But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 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. The woman saith unto him,
Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to
draw."

I here give, as nearly as I can, a brief outline of Brother Shively's
interesting discourse. He spoke of water: its purity, its beauty, its
utility, its abundance.

"Water," said he, "when it is free from all extraneous substances, is
the purest thing in the world. The curse that fell upon the ground,
whereby it would no longer yield its spontaneous increase to support
and comfort man, doomed it to bring forth thorns and thistles instead.
'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.' 'Dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return.' These fearful words are still true
of the ground to-day. Wherever man inhabits the earth, labor, sweat
and constant attention are the price which has to be paid for
comfortable subsistence in this world. But water is not included in
all this. It really is not a constituent of the ground. It may be in
the ground, but it is not of it; and its tendency is to leave the
ground as quickly as possible, under favoring conditions, as though it
felt that ground is not its place. The ground gives rise to poisonous
vapors which produce disease; but pure water never does. The only
impurities that ever enter water come from the ground as their
original source.

"It is probable that on this account our Lord used water to represent
the divine truth of his Word. Let us turn to the testimony we may
gather on this subject. First to my text, 'He that drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst.' I believe that this
means the truth of his Word. What else could it mean? Now again:
'Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled.' Filled with what? I believe that such will be
filled with the love of God and man, through a knowledge of the truth,
to such a degree that they will seek to live righteous lives. 'He that
DOETH truth is righteous.' 1 John 3:7.

"Again: Our Lord says: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me and
drink.' And what is the drink the Lord will give? Not elementary
water, I am sure; but if you will allow the expression, I will call it
spiritual water. Let us return t