can be little doubt that
when, on the last day of the feast, He stood and cried, "If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me and drink," the form of his invitation was
moulded by one of the customs of the feast. For one of the most striking
features of the feast was the drawing of water in a golden vessel from
the pool of Siloam, and carrying it in procession to the Temple, where
it was poured out with such a burst of triumph from the trumpets of the
Levites, aided by the Hallelujahs of the people, that it became a common
Jewish saying, "He who has not seen the rejoicing at the pouring out of
the water from the pool of Siloam has never seen rejoicing in his life."
This pouring out of the water before God seemed to be an acknowledgment
of His goodness in watering the corn-lands and pastures, and also a
commemoration of the miraculous supply of water in the desert; while to
some of the more enlightened it bore also a spiritual significance, and
recalled the words of Isaiah, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the
wells of salvation."

But this feast was not solely a celebration of the ingathering, or a
thanksgiving for the harvest. The name of it reminds us that another
feature was quite as prominent. In its original institution God
commanded, "Ye shall dwell in booths or tabernacles seven days; all that
are Israelites born shall dwell in booths," the reason being added,
"that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to
dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." The
particular significance of the Israelites dwelling in booths seems to be
that it marked their deliverance from a life of bondage to a life of
freedom; it reminded them how they had once no settled habitation, but
yet found a booth in the desert preferable to the well-provided
residences of Egypt. And every Feast of Tabernacles seemed intended to
recall these thoughts. In the midst of their harvest, at the end of the
year, when they were once more laying up store for winter, and when
every one was reckoning whether it would be an abundant and profitable
year for him or no, they were told to live for a week in booths, that
they might think of that period in their fathers' experience when God
was their all, when they had no provision for the morrow, and which was
yet the most triumphant period of their history. All wealth, all
distinctions of rank, all separation between rich and poor, was for a
while forgotten, as each man