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LECTURE XXVI.

THE INVITATION.

"The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."-Revelation xxii. 17.

I PASS by the 15th verse in the course of my exposition of the successive verses of this chapter, because the main sentiment in it is illustrated in the last verse of chap. xxi. I also pass the 16th verse, because the chief truth illustrated in it seems to be proclaimed almost in the same terms in the previous verses of the same chapter: and this evening I adopt for exposition the most beautiful words contained, perhaps, in the Apocalypse; the most precious invitation addressed to sinners in any part of the gospel-addressed directly by Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, and who is here represented in this his glorious character, suspending for a little the picture of the future glory, in order to appeal to the hearts of them that read, and to the ears of them that hear: "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."

We are all, without exception, if I may believe the express statements of Scripture, or regard the experience of humanity, athirst. These words are not addressed to saints as such, who thirst for the living water of the gospel, but unto all of every class, tribe and tongue, and cast of mankind, who are without Christ, and need to be saved. It assumes, what all who know humanity will readily admit, that every man, without exception, is more or less athirst. True, it is not for the living waters of the river of life, because they do not really-saints only so thirst; but there is in every man's bosom, from the time that sin first

dried up the pristine streams that flowed through man's unfallen and holy heart, a burning and a parched sense of want-an aching void, that claims to be supplied from some great source, to ease his wants, and neutralize the bitterness of his lost condition. Every one has within him an inward and an aching void -a deep sense of misery, dissatisfaction, and disquiet-created by the departure of that living God whom he offended in Paradise, which is to be removed only by His return, and the reflux of that river of life that proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. I speak to every man in this assembly, when I ask you this question, Have you not a sense of something wanting still to make you perfectly happy? Is there not occasionally experienced within you some feeling which is to your soul what hunger is to the body—what fever is to the animal economy -what thirst is to your every-day sensations? a consciousness of want a feeling of loss-an aching and an irritating chasm which you cannot fill or destroy, and which, nevertheless, you are ever trying to fill from such broken cisterns as you dig out of the world?

This being the state and experience of all mankind, we thus see what is the great object of all their toiling, their striving, and their labouring under the sun. It is to satisfy this thirst, which every one feels more or less, that every man is running with untiring feet, and toiling with unceasing hand, if peradventure he may reach something at last which he hopes will remove this aching sense, and enable him to feel perfect peace in the retrospect of the past, and a no less perfect repose in the prospect of the sure and solemn future. That stream of living beings that runs like a torrent every day along the Strand and Cheapside, is humanity driven by this inner sense of want, here and there and everywhere, in search of something to remove it. The ambitious man excavates thrones, and soars amid the stars, seeking some fountain at which he may drink and slake it there; and the avaricious man sails to California, or digs mines wherever he can find accessible an acre of the earth; or waits for hours and days on the Exchange, and watches the ups and downs of the stocks, and all the movements of the money-market, if peradventure he may increase his capital, and add to his income, and

reach that point in pecuniary resources which will enable him, as he anticipates, to defy the world, and feel independent of its favour or frown. Every man, in short, whatever be his condition, his profession, his employment in the world, feels that there is a want within him; and he labours night and noon to remove it, and so fill the aching chasm, and quench the burning and the fevered thirst.

I

My dear friends, it is the great evidence of our fall, that we seek to satisfy the soul with things seen; it is the great demonstration of our aboriginal grandeur, that there is nothing in the universe but God that can satisfy that soul. It is the evidence, say, of the terrible eclipse that has passed upon us, that we try to fill the infinite vacuity from broken cisterns: it is the evidence of the vastness of that soul, that there is nothing in the heights, nothing in the depths, nothing in pleasure, nothing in possession, that can fill it and make it rest. It is written on crowns and coronets, on thrones, on all that is great, magnificent, and splendid, "Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again;" but it is heard in the chimes of the waves of the river that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb, that was first unsealed on Calvary, "But he that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." "O Lord, evermore give us this water." The only element that can satisfy this thirst is a supply from that river, the virtues, the excellences, the source, and the issue of which I endeavoured to describe when I preached to you from the first verse of this chapter: "He showed me" -for we cannot see without showing; all that we can see with the outward eye is the outside of the gospel, the channel of Christianity; it needs him that inspired the Bible to open up and show us the river within:-"He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." I need not tell you that living water is used throughout the Bible as the great symbol of the blessings of the gospel; and if I translated symbolic language into plain prosaic language, it would be this-that man has within him a want which nothing but Christianity can meet, and truly and perfectly remove. In order to convey these and kindred great truths more

vividly, God is pleased to use symbolic language; and I need not say that such language is consecrated by the habits and usages of all nations. There is something, certainly, in an expressive symbol, that comes home to man's heart with very great power, and not only conveys more vividly a great truth, but opens up that mysterious and inner harmony between things physical and things spiritual, which the blunted ear of common humanity cannot hear, but which the ear that is circumcised by the Spirit of God hears, and hears music in. And God varies the imagery in which he speaks to man for the following purpose. Almost every man, except the most prosaic of men, has some incident in life that makes some figure extremely eloquent and expressive to him. Some one has been a traveller in distant lands; he has been almost starved. The picture most eloquent to that man is a picture of the gospel under the symbol of bread. Another has been in a storm, expecting a watery grave every moment; a vessel hove in sight, and that vessel saved him, and carried him to a haven. How full of beauty must be, to that man's heart, salvation! Christ the author of it, the ark of salvation that preserves his people! And so I might go over every symbol in the gospel, and show that each is thus suited to meet a peculiar idiosyncrasy; so that no man will be able to allege at the judgment-seat, that he missed the end of the gospel by being ignorant and unacquainted with the mode, or symbol, or imagery in which that gospel was conceived.

We find the figure in the text alluded to in such passages as these:-Isa. xxxv.: "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." Isa. xli. 18, we read: "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." In Isa. lv. 1, we have that beautiful invitation: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Again, in the Gospel of John, we have the same beautiful idea set forth: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have

given thee living water." And these are images employed by various penmen, borrowed from rivers, or fountains, or springs, to convey some deep sense of the mighty blessings of the gospel of Jesus, and to teach all humanity, athirst as it is, that there is but one fountain that can satisfy it-the fountain of living water. And yet, strange to say, the prophet says, men "have committed two great evils; they have forsaken the fountain of living water, and have hewn out to themselves broken cisterns." How expressive is that! They have forsaken the fountain that is unsealed, that gushes forth at their very doors, and have not gone to other cisterns that they found equally open; but rather than take God's living water freely, they have laboured with pickaxes and hammers, and hewn out cisterns which they find, one after another in painful succession, to be "broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Now, having explained to you in a former discourse the nature of that river, and the character of that water, I will dwell this evening, as God may enable me, not upon the nature of the blessings of the gospel, but upon the duty and the privilege, the instant duty and the instant privilege, of coming and accepting the blessings that are freely offered. If there be one idea that is more than another impressed in my text, it is the invitation, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come;" that is one invitation; "and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." You see, then, that the main drift of the text is to urge and impress the duty-I will not say the duty, though it is a duty; I will say the privilege, the unspeakable privilegeof at once coming to the fountain unsealed by him that filled it; and of drinking at that fountain those truths, those hopes, those promises, those blessings, that forgiveness, that peace, that joy, which will enable you to look down upon the grandeur and magnificence of the world as pale, mean, and worthless, and to thirst again only for God, the living God. The invitation, then, is, Come; the entreaty is, Believe and accept the gospel.

Let me just descend to the lowest ground on which it is possible to address you this evening. I have addressed those that profess to be the people of God, who surrounded the communion