[1] Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down
'Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody sun at noon
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the moon.
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath, nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.--_Coleridge: "Ancient Mariner."_
[2] The Talmudists refer the words, "With joy shall ye draw
water out of the wells of salvation," to the custom of
making an oblation of water on the last day of the Feast of
Tabernacles, when a priest fetched water in a golden
pitcher from the fountain of Siloah, and poured it mixed
with wine on the morning sacrifice as it lay on the altar;
while at the evening offering the same was done amidst
shouts of joy from the assembled people. It was in obvious
allusion to this rite that, "in the last day, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me and drink;" but as it is not
prescribed in the law of Moses, it has been doubted whether
it dates back earlier than the times of the Maccabees. It
is, however, at least as probable that the Asmonean princes
should have restored an ancient as ordained a new rite:
such a rite, to acknowledge God's gift of water without
which harvest and vintage must have failed, would always
have been a likely accompaniment of the feast in which
these were celebrated; and the like acts of Samuel and
Elijah, though for different purposes, perhaps go in
confirmation of the ancient existence of such a practice
(1 Sam vii. 6; 1 Kings xviii. 33-35). Be this as it may,
the idea conveyed by the image of the living water will be
the same:--"Such as is the refreshment of water from the
spring, and from the clouds of heaven, to the parched lips
and the thirsty land, in this our sultry climate, such
shall be the refreshment of your spirit in that day from
the salvation of Jehovah He shall dwell among you, and His
Spirit shall be a well of life to the whole
nation."--_Strachey._
The last day of the feast, known as "the Hosanna Rabba" and
the "Great Day," found Him, as each day before, doubtless,
had done, in the Temple arcades. He had gone thither early,
to meet the crowds assembled for morning prayer. It was a
day of special rejoicing. A great procession of pilgrims
marched seven times round the city, with their lulats
[branches of palm woven round with willow and myrtle],
music, and loud-voiced choirs preceding, and the air was
rent with shouts of Hosanna, in commemoration of the taking
of Jericho, the first city in the Holy Land that fell into
the hands of their fathers. Other multitudes streamed to
the brook of Shiloah, after the priests and Levites,
bearing the golden vessels, with which to draw some of the
water. As many as could get near the stream drank of it,
amidst loud chanting of the words of Isaiah--"Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," "With joy shall we
draw water from the wells of salvation,"--rising in
jubilant chants on every side. The water drawn by the
priests was meanwhile borne up to the Temple, amid the
boundless excitement of a vast throng. Such a crowd was,
apparently, passing at this moment.
Rising, as the throng went by, His Spirit was moved at such
honest enthusiasm, yet saddened at the moral decay which
mistook a mere ceremony for religion. It was burning autumn
weather, when the sun had for months shone in a cloudless
sky, and the early rains were longed for as the monsoons in
India after the summer heat. Water at all times is a magic
word in a sultry climate like Palestine, but at this moment
it had a double power. Standing, therefore, to give His
words more solemnity, His voice now sounded far and near
over the throng, with soft clearness, which arrested all--
"If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, for I
will give him the living waters of God's heavenly grace, of
which the water you have now drawn from Shiloah is only, as
your Rabbis tell you, a type. He that believes in Me drinks
into his soul of My fulness, as from a fountain, the riches
of Divine grace and truth. Nor do they bring life to him
alone who thus drinks. They become in his own heart, as the
whole burden of Scripture tells, a living spring, which
shall flow from his lips and life in holy words and deeds,
quickening the thirsty around him."--_Geikie._
[3] John vii. 38, "In the Book Sohar we find the same metaphor,
fol. 40, col. 4, 'When a man turns to God, he becomes like
a spring of fresh living water, and streams flow out from
him to all men.'"--_Geikie._
[4] See H. E. I., 315-352, 1252-1285.
[5] See H. E. I., 3309-3311, 3424-3465, 5075-5081.