and understand
each other.

This reply of the Stranger awakens the interest of the woman while at
the same time it mystifies and bewilders her. He is evidently sincere,
and yet what can He mean? And in puzzled wonderment she asks Him,
"Whence then hast thou living water? You have nothing to draw with and
the well is deep. Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us
the well and drank thereof himself and his sons and his cattle? Jacob
was a great prince, a man of power with God and man. Do you know a
secret that he did not know? Can you do what he could not do?"

And this winsome Stranger does not hesitate to say that He can. Will
you listen to the claim that He makes to this woman. No other teacher
however great and however egotistical ever made such a claim before or
since. "Yes," He replies, "I am greater than your father Jacob. I am
greater because I can give a gift that is infinitely beyond his.
'Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again, 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.'"

Did you notice here the two-fold declaration of the Master? He said in
the first place that this old well would not satisfy permanently. And
what is true of that well is true of all wells that have ever been
digged by human hands. What is wrong with them? For one thing, they
never satisfy. They never slake our thirst. To drink from them is
like drinking sea water--we become only the more parched and thirsty as
we drink.

Do you remember "The Ancient Mariner"? He is on a ship in the ocean
and he is parched and dying with thirst. What is the matter? Has the
sea gone dry? No--

"Water, water everywhere
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."

There is water, but it is not water that will satisfy.

And so men have digged their wells. They have been real wells. They
had held real water of a kind, but it has been water that was utterly
powerless to slake the thirst of the soul. Here is a man who has
digged a well of wealth. Treasure is bubbling up about him like the
waters of a fountain. He is rich beyond his hopes, but is he
satisfied? Listen! "Soul, thou hast much good laid up for many days,
eat, drink and be merry." But his soul has no appetite for that kind
of bread. His soul has no thirst fo