'He that believeth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water.' That is one case of the universal law that a man who trusts
Christ becomes like the Christ whom he trusts. Derivatively and by
impartation, no doubt, but still the man who has gone to that Rock, to
the springing fountain as it pushes forth, receives into himself an
inward life by the communication of Christ's divine Spirit, so that he
has in him a fountain 'springing up into life everlasting.' The Book of
Proverbs says, 'The good man shall be satisfied from himself,' but the
good man is only satisfied from himself when he can say, 'I live, yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me,' and from that better self he will be
satisfied.
So we may have a well in the courtyard, and may be able to bear in
ourselves the fountain of water, and where the divine life of Christ by
His Spirit has through faith been implanted within us, it will come out
from us. There is a question for you Christian people—do any rivers of
living water flow out of you? If they do not, it is to be doubted
whether you have drunk of the fountain. There are many professing
Christians who are like the foul little rivers that pass under the
pavements in Manchester, all impure, and covered over so that nobody
sees them. 'Out of him shall flow rivers of living water'—that is
Christ's way of communicating the blessing of eternal life to the
world—by the medium of those who have already received it. Christian
men and women, if your faith has brought the life into you, see to it
that approaching Christ, and appropriating Christ, and adhering to
Christ, you are becoming assimilated to Christ, and in your daily life,
God's grace fructifying through you to all, are 'become as rivers of
water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'