The contrast is between the springing fountain, there in the desert,
with the lush green herbage round about, where a man has only to stoop
and drink, and the painful hewing of cisterns.
This emblem of the fountain beautifully suggests the great thought of
God's own loving will as the self-originated impulse by which He pours
out all good. Apart from all our efforts, the precious gift is provided
for us. Our relation is only that of receivers.
We have the contrast with this in the laborious toils to which they
condemn themselves who seek for created sources of good. 'Hewn out
cisterns'--think of a man who, with a fountain springing in his
courtyard, should leave it and go to dig in the arid desert, or to hew
the live rock in hopes to gain water. It was already springing and
sparkling before him. The conduct of men, when they leave God and seek
for other delights, is like digging a canal alongside a navigable
river. They condemn themselves to a laborious and quite superfluous
task. The true way to get is to take.
Illustrations in religion. Think of the toil and pains spent in
idolatry and in corrupt forms of Christianity.
Illustrations in common life. Your toils--aye, and even your
pleasures--how much of them is laboriously digging for the water which
all the while is flowing at your side.