"Life" in its beginnings--the new birth. In John iv. 14 we have
"Life abundantly"--"a well of water springing up." The secret of the
perennial upspringing is in the word "drink-e-t-h;" "he that
drinketh"--not takes a drink, but drinks and drinks and keeps on drinking,
is in the habit of drinking--that man never thirsts; for how can a man's
soul be dry and thirsty with a well of water in it? Many people are
living in the third of John,--they have "Life," but it is not strong and
vigorous; they are suffering from deficient vitality,--when Jesus wants
them to be in the fourth, enjoying "Life abundantly." The difference
between the two experiences is well illustrated in the case of Hagar. In
Gen. xxi. 14 we read that Abraham gave Hagar "a bottle of water" and sent
her away. As she wandered in the wilderness "the water was spent in the
bottle" (ver. 15). But in ver. 19 "God opened her eyes, and she saw a
well of water." There are "bottle" Christians, and there are "well"
Christians. 'Tis a painful experience wandering in the wilderness with an
empty bottle and a dying child! Alas! that there should be so many
acquainted with the pain, when all the time God wants us to be
independent of any bottle, to be abundantly satisfied with a well of
water within us, fed from the hills of God. He wants us to be independent
of all but Himself. The "well" is in every Christian, though it is not
"springing up" in every one that has it. The very well, on the side of
which Jesus, weary with His long journey from Eternity, once sat, has
to-day no thirsty men or women coming to it with their empty pitchers,
for the well is dry. How? why? Because so much rubbish has fallen in that
the well is choked. Clear out the well, and the water will spring up
again as in Christ's day. So with many a child of God. The water is
within them, the well is there, but it is choked; the water is not
springing up, and so they are reduced to dependence on a bottle! Oh! for
an anointed eye in our head to see the rubbish, and for grace in our
hearts to deal with it, to judge it and to cast it out; and then we would
soon have an eye to "see the well of water." May He break every "bottle,"
and open every eye to see "the well." Now let us contrast the "well" of
the fourth chapter with the "rivers" of the seventh. The "well" is for
the supply of all possible _local_ needs; but since the Christianity of
Jesus is essentially an unselfish thing, He has made ample provision fo