“God’s Spirit is often spoken of under the figure of water,” continued Christie. “‘I will pour water on him that is thirsty!’ and in another place Jesus Himself says, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.’ Such an expression must have been very plain and appropriate to the people of that warm country, where water was necessary and not always easily got.”
Christie had heard all this said; and she repeated it, not because it answered Miss Gertrude’s question, but because she did not know what else to say. And all the time she was trying to get a glimpse of the face which the young lady shaded with her hand. She wanted very much to say something to do her good, especially now that they were about to part. The feeling was strong in Christie’s heart, at the moment, that though Miss Gertrude might return again, their intercourse could never be renewed—at least not on the same footing; and though it hurt her much to know it, her own pain was quite lost in the earnest desire she felt in some way or other to do Miss Gertrude good. So, after a pause, she said, again—
“I suppose ‘to thirst’ means to earnestly desire. ‘Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness,’ you remember. And David says, ‘As the hart panteth after the water-brook, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!’ And in another place, ‘My soul thirsteth for Thee.’”
Gertrude neither moved nor spoke, and Christie went on—
“And when it is said of them, ‘They shall never thirst,’ I suppose it means they shall be satisfied out of God’s fulness. Having His best gift, all the rest seems of little account. ‘Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to approach near unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts: he shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, and of Thy holy temple.’ And in another place, ‘My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips.’” And then, as she was rather apt to do when deeply in earnest, breaking into the old familiar Scottish version, she added—
“‘They with the fatness of Thy house
Shall be well satisfied;
From rivers of Thy pleasures Thou
Wilt drink to them provide.
Because of life the fountain pure
Remains alone with Thee;
And in that purest light of Thine
We clearly light shall see.’”
She stopped, partly because she thought she had said enough, and partly because it would not have been easy just then to have said more. Her face drooped over her work, and there was silence again.
“Well,” said Miss Gertrude, with a long breath, “it must be a wonderful thing to be satisfied, as you call it.”
“Yes,” said Christie, softly; “and the most wonderful thing of all is that all may enjoy this blessedness, and freely, too.”
“I have heard you say that before,” said Miss Gertrude; “but it is all a mystery to me. You say all who will may have this blessedness; but the Bible says it is the man whom God chooses that is blessed.”