Jesus said:  “If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink.”  For, said he:  “My words are spirit, and they are life.”  His words are the water of life.  This explains my text.

It might surprise some of you if I were to point to that spring yonder and say, “There flows the water of life.”  But would I not tell the truth?  Can man or beast live one moment without it?  Let us think a little.  What is your blood?  It is water, holding in solution the various elements with which your bones, and sinews, and muscles, and nerves, and other tissues of your body are to be supplied and nourished.  Can man or beast live a moment without blood?  Then they cannot live a moment without water.  Can trees and plants live a moment without sap?  They cannot, because their sap is their blood.  But the water of that spring, indispensable as it is to your bodily life, ceases as to its uses in this respect when this end is met; and if man had no life other than that of mere corporeal or animal existence, no other water would ever be demanded by him.  In that case there would be no need of the invitation given in the text.

But every human being has a twofold nature.  He has a spiritual body as well as a natural body.  Paul says:  “If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”  Man’s natural or physical organization consists of flesh and blood.  Paul calls this the “outer man.”  This is man’s animal or sensuous nature.  Man’s spiritual body consists of will and understanding.  Paul calls this the inner man; because it is the interior, “hidden man of the heart.”  This is capable of becoming the higher, nobler, better part of man, because it is the “house” of his affections and thoughts, of his loves and enjoyments.

There is a wonderful difference between the two natures; and yet the one corresponds to the other so perfectly that in all of man’s experiences, in all that pertains to his life in this world, the two natures make one man.  Whilst this is so, we must not forget that our natural bodies are mortal; they will soon die.  But our spiritual bodies are immortal; they will never die.  This is quite as true of the evil as of the good.  The spiritual bodies or souls of men will live on, after the death of their natural bodies, through the countless ages of eternity,—­the good, in the enjoyments of ineffable bliss; the evil, in the sufferings of deepest woe.

And is this true?  Can it be that one or the other of these experiences is sure to be realized by every one present here to-day?  Can it be so?  Or am I here just beating the air to make you and me hear myself talk?  I solemnly protest that I am not here for that purpose.  I have a higher aim, a nobler end.  But let me point you to my authority for what I say, and show you the Rock on which my faith is built.  All the authority which any man dare claim on this subject is found in God’s revealed Word.  I will here quote a few passages: