_THE SPRING AND THE RIVER_
"_With the Lord there is mercy._"
--PSALM cxxx.
That is the ultimate spring. All the pilgrims of the night may meet at
that fountain. We have no other common meeting-place. If we make any other
appointment we shall lose one another on the way. But we can meet one
another at the fountain, men of all colours, and of all denominations, and
of all creeds. "By Thy mercy, O deliver us, good Lord!"
"_There is forgiveness with Thee._" That is the quickening river. Sin and
guilt scorch the fair garden of the soul as the lightning withers and
destroys the strong and beautiful things in woodland and field. The graces
are stricken, holy qualities are smitten, and the soul languishes like a
blasted heath. But from the fountain of God's mercy there flows the
vitalizing stream of His forgiveness. "There is a river the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God." It is the mystic "river of life,
clear as crystal." "Everything shall live whither the river cometh."
"_With Him is plenteous redemption._" Salvation is not merely a recovered
flower, it is a recovered garden. It is not the restoring merely of a
withered hand; "He restoreth my soul." God does not make an oasis in a
surrounding desert; He makes the entire wilderness to "rejoice and blossom
as the rose."