faith, and the manifestation of faith is practical righteousness. "Show Me thy faith by thy works" is Christ's teaching quite as much as it is the teaching of His sturdy servant, James. And so, dear friends, we are going by the direct road to enrich lives with all the beauties of possible human perfection when we say, "Begin at the beginning. The longest way round is the shortest way home; trust Him with all your hearts first, and that will effloresce into whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report." In the beautiful metaphor of the Apostle Peter, in his second Epistle, Faith is the damsel who leads in the chorus of consequent graces, and we are exhorted to "add to our faith virtue," and all the other that unfold themselves in harmonious sequence from that one central source.

If I had time I should be glad to turn for a moment to the light which such considerations cast upon subjects that are largely occupying the attention of the Christian Church to-day. I should like to insist that, before you talk much about applied Christianity, you make very sure that in men there is a Christianity to apply. I venture to profess my own humble belief that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred Christian ministers and churches will do most for the social, political, and intellectual and moral advancement of men and the elevation of the people by sticking to their own work and preaching this Gospel: "This is the work of God, that ye

believe on Him whom He hath sent."

IV. Lastly, this faith secures the bread of life.

That bread of life is the starting-point of the whole conversation. In the widest possible sense it is what

soever truly stills the hunger of the immortal soul. In a deeper sense, it is the person of Jesus Christ Himself, for He not only says that He will give, but that He is the Bread of Life. And, in the deepest sense of all, it is His flesh broken for us in His sacrifice on the cross. That bread is a gift. So the paradox results which stands in our text-work for the bread which God will give. If it be a gift, that fact determines what sort of work must be done in order to possess it. If it be a gift, then the only work is to accept it. If it be a gift, then we are out of the region of quid pro quo; and have not to bring, as Chinamen do in trading, great strings of copper cash that, all added up together, do not amount to a shilling, in order to buy what God will bestow upon us. If it be a gift, then to trust the giver and to accept the gift are the only conditions that are requisite.

It is not a condition that He has invented out of His own head, so to speak. The necessity of it is lodged deep in the very nature of the case. Air cannot get to the lungs of a mouse in an air-pump. Light cannot come into a room where all the shutters are up and the keyhole stopped. If a man pleases to perch himself on some little stool of his own, with glass legs to it, and to take away his hand from the conductor, no electricity will come to him. If I choose to lock my lips, Jesus Christ does not prise open my clenched teeth to put the bread of life into an unwilling mouth. If we ask we receive; if we take we possess.

And so the paradox comes about, that we work for a gift, with a work which is not work, because it is a departure from self. It is the same blessed paradox

Oh! what a

which the prophet spoke when he said, "Buy without money and without price." burden of hopeless effort and weary toil-like that of the man that had to roll the stone up the hill, which ever slipped back again-is lifted from our shoulders, by such a word as this that I have been poorly trying to speak about now. "Thou art careful and troubled about many things," poor soul! trying to be good; trying to fight yourself, and the world, and the devil. Try the other plan, and listen to Him saying "Give up self-imposed effort in thine own strength. Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you."

IX.

The Gift and the Giver.

JESUS answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water."-JOHN iv. 10.

us.

HIS Gospel has two characteristics seldom found together; deep thought and vivid character drawing. Nothing can be more clear cut and dramatic than the scene in the chapter before There is not a word of description of this Samaritan woman. She paints herself, and it is not a beautiful picture. She is apparently of the peasant class, from a little village nestling on the hill above the plain, come down in the broiling sunshine to Jacob's well. She is of mature age, and has had a not altogether reputable past. She is frivolous, ready to talk with strangers, with a tongue quick to turn grave things into jests; and yet she possesses, hidden beneath masses of unclean vanities, a conscience and a yearning for something better than she has, which Christ's words awoke, and which were finally so enkindled as to make her fit to receive the full declaration of His Messiahship, with which Pharisees and priests could not be trusted.

I need scarcely do more than remind you of the way in which the conversation between this strangelyassorted pair began. The solitary Jew, sitting spent with travel on the well, asks for a draught of water; not in order to get an opening for preaching, but because He needs it. She replies with an exclamation of light wonder, half a jest and half a sarcasm, and challenging a response in the same tone.

But Christ lifts her to a higher level by the words of my text, which awed levity, and prepared for a fuller revelation. "Thou dost wonder that I, being a Jew, ask drink of thee, a Samaritan. If thou knewest who I am, thy wonder at My asking would be more. If thou knewest what I have to give, we should change places, and thou wouldest ask, and I should bestow."

So, then, we have here gift, Giver, way of getting, and ignorance that hinders asking. Let us look at these.

I.—First, the gift of God. Now it is quite clear that our Lord means the same thing, whatever it may be, by the two expressions, the "gift of God" and the "living water." For, unless He does, the whole sequence of my text falls to pieces. "Living water" was suggested, no doubt, by the circumstances of the moment. There, in the well, was an ever-springing source, and, says He, a like supply, ever welling up for thirsty lips and foul hands, ever sweet and ever sufficient, God is ready to give.

We may remember how, all through Scripture, we hear the tinkle of these waters as they run. The force of the expression is to be gathered largely from the Old Testament and the uses of the metaphor there.