You can get no water from your old pump. When you try you get
only a painful wheezing. Pumps are not living things, but they,
too, suffer exhaustion. Must you give it up, and dig a new well?
Oh, no. The well is all right, and has given abundant and sweet
water for a generation. You look it over, and find that the old
leather valve is dry and worn out. Pour in a pitcher of water to
wet it, and the wheezing is cured. Put in a new valve and the
old pump is good for years to come. God’s supply of living water
is abundant as ever. It is only your connection with it that
failed.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”
(533)