I here give, as nearly as I can, a brief outline of Brother Shively’s interesting discourse.  He spoke of water:  its purity, its beauty, its utility, its abundance.

“Water,” said he, “when it is free from all extraneous substances, is the purest thing in the world.  The curse that fell upon the ground, whereby it would no longer yield its spontaneous increase to support and comfort man, doomed it to bring forth thorns and thistles instead.  ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.’  ’Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’  These fearful words are still true of the ground to-day.  Wherever man inhabits the earth, labor, sweat and constant attention are the price which has to be paid for comfortable subsistence in this world.  But water is not included in all this.  It really is not a constituent of the ground.  It may be in the ground, but it is not of it; and its tendency is to leave the ground as quickly as possible, under favoring conditions, as though it felt that ground is not its place.  The ground gives rise to poisonous vapors which produce disease; but pure water never does.  The only impurities that ever enter water come from the ground as their original source.

“It is probable that on this account our Lord used water to represent the divine truth of his Word.  Let us turn to the testimony we may gather on this subject.  First to my text, ’He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.’  I believe that this means the truth of his Word.  What else could it mean?  Now again:  ’Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they shall be filled.’  Filled with what?  I believe that such will be filled with the love of God and man, through a knowledge of the truth, to such a degree that they will seek to live righteous lives.  ’He that DOETH truth is righteous.’ 1 John 3:7.

“Again:  Our Lord says:  ’If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’  And what is the drink the Lord will give?  Not elementary water, I am sure; but if you will allow the expression, I will call it spiritual water.  Let us return to the text again.  If you will trace the chapter throughout, you will see how gently and tenderly the Lord approached the dark mind of this woman.  He told her of things in her life that no stranger would be likely to know.  In this way he gained her confidence.  She said:  ‘I perceive thou art a prophet.’  This was one point gained.  Next he told her that ‘ye’ (including the class of Samaritans to whom she belonged) ’worship ye know not what.  We know what we worship.’  This was another step with the cup of living water in his hand to apply to her lips.  His next step was to tell her that God is a Spirit, and that all true worship must be from the heart, ’in spirit and in truth,’ and that the Father seeketh such to worship him.  I do suppose this is the first time she ever heard God called Father.  It was new to her, so new that she confessed her belief in a coming Messias, who would be able to tell her all things; but that he would come in the spirit and love of a kind Father exceeded all her hopes.