n search of Him! Thy pilgrimage is ended, the waters are at thy feet!

But I must "_draw_ the water out of the wells of salvation." The hand of
faith must lift the gracious gift to the parched lips, and so refresh the
panting soul. "I will _take_ the cup of salvation." Stretch out thy "lame
hand of faith," and take the holy, hallowing energy offered by the Lord.

AUGUST The Sixth

_WATERS OF CONTENTMENT_

ISAIAH iv. 1-7.

The refreshing waters are offered to "everyone" that is thirsty. The
evangel is like some clear bugle peal, sounded on some commanding upland,
and which is heard alike in palace and cottage, in school and at the mill,
by the child of plenty and by the child of want. "Ho, everyone!" The
appeal is to the common heart, whether the setting be squalor or
splendour, whether the soul faints in the glare of the prosperous noon, or
under the chill of the burdensome night. "Ho, everyone that thirsteth!"

And the waters may be ours "without money and without price." We have not
to earn them by the sweat of body, mind, or soul. We have not to make a
toilsome pilgrimage, on bleeding feet, to some distant Lourdes, where the
sacred healer abides. No, we are asked to pay nothing, and for the simple
reason that we "have nothing wherewith to pay." The reviving grace is
given to us "freely," and all that we have to present is our thirst.

And yet we spend and spend, we labour and labour, but we buy no bread of
contentment, and the waters of satisfaction are far away. The satisfying
bread cannot be bought; it can only be begged. The water of life cannot be
taken from a cistern; it must be drunk at the spring.

AUGUST The Seventh

_RIVERS FROM THE SNOW_

REVELATION xxii. 1-7, 17-21.

The water of life flows out of the throne. Grace has its rise in sovereign
holiness. This river is born amid the virgin snow. All true love springs
out of spotless purity. "Love" from any other source is illegitimately
wearing a stolen name. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!" That is the first
note in the song of redemption. In that burning whiteness I discern the
possibility of my own sanctification.

For the grace which flows out of sovereign holiness is a minister of the
holy Lord to make me holy. If it were not perfectly pure it would itself
be an agent of defilement. But it is "clear as crystal," and therefore it
purifies and fertilizes wherever it flows. Rare trees grow upon its banks,
and grace-fruits make ever