BLESSEDNESS OF THIRST.
I saw a letter
written by a young invalid, who had been sent to Madeira to escape the rigor of
a Scottish winter. It glowed all over with the praises of the place; the
climate, the landscape, the friends, the food-all were of the best. Even in the
matter of health there was neither sickness nor pain. But one plaint, not loud
but long, ran though the letter like its woof; the key-note of the melancholy
cadence was, “I have no appetite. If the appetite should return I would be
well.” The next mail brought intelligence that she was dead and buried. In the midst
of plenty she dies of want-a want not of food, but of hunger.
This is the
ailment of which many souls are dying in the city and the land today. Wells of
salvation are flowing, and overflowing, and flooding the land. The proclamation
everywhere resounds, “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” The
whole world may get life there as well as one man. All the fullness of the
Godhead is treasured up in Christ. On one side all things are now ready. Here
is the water of life, but where are the thirsty souls? Many perish-perish for
want of thirst. I know not any pleasure of the sense more exquisite than a draught
of cool, clear water, when you are thirsty; but few things are more insipid
than water when there is no thirst. It is thus that Christ and his salvation
are very sweet to one, and very tasteless to another. – Dr. Arnot in “The
Anchor of the Soul.”
