of the children ran off to alarm his parents, who, on reaching the spot, were astonished to find him seated on an adjoining hillock, cold and dripping. On being questioned how he had got there, he replied, 'A bonny white man came and drew me out of the well.' The historian adds, that though this approaches the marvellous, it is highly characteristic of the future man. Like Joseph, we can say of Rutherford, that he was a fruitful bough by a well. Perhaps it was some remembrance of this incident that made him sing:

'O Christ, He is the fountain,

The deep sweet well of love.
The streams on earth I've tasted,
More deep I'll drink above;
There, to an ocean fulness,

His mercy doth expand;
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Immanuel's land.'

Out of how many wells of danger and difficulty do we come up gladly thankful, like Jonathan, Ahimaaz, and Joseph; or with Rutherford saying, 'A bonny white man came and drew me out of the well.'

CHAPTER VIII.

Jesus at the Well.

'From thee, O Rock once smitten, flow
Life-giving streams for ever;
And whoso doth their sweetness know,
He henceforth thirsteth never.
My lips have touched the crystal tide,
And feel no more returning

The fever that so long I tried

To cool, yet still felt burning;
O wondrous Well-spring, brimming o'er
With living waters evermore.'

'Jesus... sat thus on the well.'-JOHN IV. 6.

WH

HAT has given to this well a glory all its own? In all ages it has been the theme alike of artist, poet, preacher; and why? Because Jesus 'sat thus on the well.' The ground round it has been worn by many a traveller's foot; the page of John's Gospel is well worn by the pilgrim's finger, and still we cannot

pass it by. He who had not where to lay His head was thirsty, weary, hungry, when He came to this well. Well might He have said as He looked round on His own earth, 'I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; . . a stranger, and ye took me not in.' But no; here beside this well, we most wonderful picture of self

are to have the

forgetting love. As we gaze we say :

'I'll let my weary mind recline

On that eternal love of Thine,

And human thought forget.'

We wish to sit with Him beside this well. We take a place beside the wicked woman, the dark background on which His love and glory were to shine. She thought she was sufficiently informed as to the history of her well, and could instruct Him. She knew not that in the far-back ages, when as yet there were no fountains abounding with water,' He had been with the Father when He planned the world and her salvation. Little did she think when she left her home that morning with an empty pitcher and a still emptier heart, that ere nightfall the world would be all changed to her, or rather she all changed to it-the life of sin behind, and glory on before.

If the most earnest among us had been in His place that day, we should have thought our fatigue a reason for silence, or, at least, to such a small audience a short message would have seemed enough. But the woman marvels, angels marvel, the disciples marvel; and we, looking from this side the cross, marvel too; but marvelling, understand that the love which flowed from His heart as the blood and water from His side, had only in its intensity burst sooner forth that day, and flooded the being of that poor woman who at that wellside was made herself a spring of living water.

'Twas deep, the well from which He drew,

Deep as His love, His woe, His grave;
It quenched His own great thirst, I knew,
One dying soul from death to save.
The cup was running o'er the brim—
The cup of life He reached to me;
O thirsting spirit! ask of Him,
And He will freely give to thec.'

CHAPTER IX.

W

Added Springs.

Springs of life in desert places

Shall thy God unseal for thee;
Quickening and reviving graces,
Dew-like, healing, sweet, and free.
Springs of sweet refreshment flowing,
When thy work is hard or long,
Courage, hope, and power bestowing,
Lightening labour with a song.

Springs of peace, when conflict heightens,
Thine uplifted eye shall see ;

Peace that strengthens, calms, and brightens,--
Peace, itself a victory!

Springs of comfort, strangely springing

Through the bitter wells of woe;
Founts of hidden gladness, bringing

Joy that earth can ne'er bestow.'

HEN our Caleb comes to us, saying, 'What wouldst thou?' our quick reply is, 'A blessing; thou hast given me a south land; give