TO pilgrims under hot skies, how cheering and heartening the cry that tells of the approach to wells of springing water in a thirsty land! Often did the Israelites of old draw near to such quiet resting places during their long travel in the wilderness; and it is easy to see how these springs would gradually become associated with sacred aspirations and holy desires, and would symbolize "living waters" flowing from the eternal God. Hence, in the Bible we often find wells and springs and fountains spoken of in connection with deep spiritual experiences. Many times are they mentioned by the prophets or in those outpourings of holy exaltation known as the Psalms. The writings of Isaiah, too, are rich in reference to the water of Life, their beautiful imagery stirring the heart to a sense of its own parched weariness, and wakening a longing to drink of life-giving fountains.
In the Old Testament we have a picture of Isaac at Gerar digging again the wells which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, and which the Philistines had stopped. He and his followers had a long struggle with the would-be owners of the wells, but at last his people had access to the water.
In our own day the life of Mary Baker Eddy exemplified a similar earnest struggle to dig anew for us the wells of salvation, wells long choked with the debris of material beliefs. Her efforts were crowned with success, and the Science of Christianity, which she discovered, has made of the Bible an open book for all to read and understand.
What is this water of Life? It may be described as the knowledge or understanding of the laws of God, by which we are able to heal ourselves and others both of material thinking and of the ills of the flesh resulting from such thinking. In the Scriptures these divine laws of health and holiness have been shadowed forth by poet and prophet, and they find their culminating expression in the life of our Master. In the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus is found telling his disciples that he had yet many things to say to them which they could not at that time "bear," or understand, thus revealing his foreknowledge that the world's thought as a whole must grow and develop before his teachings could be fully understood and his works put into practice. The growth of the Christian Science movement throughout the civilized world to-day shows that the clear water of Truth is being assimilated and understood; and students of Christian Science gladly testify to its purifying power and immeasurable blessing.
The story of Hagar, recorded in the book of Genesis, illustrates that divine sustenance is always at hand. In this instance error seems to have driven Hagar into the wilderness; but an angel, or message from God, found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness and bade her return and submit herself to her mistress. Owing to her vision of the all-seeing, protecting presence of God, the well was called "Beer-lahai-roi," that is, the well of him that liveth and "seeth me;" and by this name it became known to future generations of Israel.
Later, when again it seemed necessary to leave her earthly home, Hagar wandered in the wilderness, spent with trouble and thirst, and at last laid her child in the shelter of a low bush to die. But again the record tells us that "God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water." God guides, guards, and governs our every upward step. If we more fully realized the law of divine direction, we should oftener meet with these wells of refreshment, even as did this weary wanderer in her sore need. It seems easy to realize the law of supply when all is going harmoniously and we are lifting our hearts in thankfulness. It should not, however, seem more difficult to understand, rejoice in, and apply this law of divine Love when clouds appear on the horizon of our wilderness experience. Holding steadfastly to what we know of Truth, we shall find inspiration close to us here and now. The wells of salvation are ever at hand.
Later we find Abraham sending a trusted servant to seek a helpmeet for Isaac his son; and the servant journeyed into the far land whence Abraham himself had come. We see him standing by a well of water in Mesopotamia, asking for guidance; and the story of what came to pass provides a happy illustration of God's unerring direction of those who put their trust in Him in all ages. This faithful servant's praise and gratitude to God at the successful outcome of his mission were not forgotten, and he closed his prayer with the simple words, "I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren." No other issue except the blessed leading of divine Love can come to those who are "in the way."
Let us now glance at two of the pools or fountains referred to in the Gospel of John. Bethesda is one of those illumined by the loving word and work of the Master. In its five porches lay many impotent folk. In this case may not the troubled, changing pool be thought of as the fitful, impermanent waters of so-called mortal mind? Speaking of material modes and methods, Mrs. Eddy has written in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p.198), "Giving another direction to faith, the physician prescribes drugs, until the elasticity of mortal thought haply causes a vigorous reaction upon itself, and reproduces a picture of healthy and harmonious formations." In a like reaction of mortal thought is doubtless to be found the clue to the cures apparently wrought at Bethesda during the changing or troubling of the water. In the world of to-day there are many who, like the impotent man, have gone along suffering, stumbling, seeking material relief for their many woes, until some vigorous reaction has changed their thought or they have unhappily resigned themselves to what they supposed to be the will of the loving Father! And then, perhaps, the truth has come to them in Christian Science, as Christ Jesus came to the impotent man at Bethesda, with the same healing results. We see the Master compassionately regarding the man who had lain for so long by the pool, and bringing to bear on a seemingly hopeless condition his marvelous understanding of the divine law of healing. Love inspires thought to see through the vain, egotistical show of materiality, and remains undisturbed by its self-assertive claim to reality. Strength, constancy, tenderness, mingled in the Master and drew all men unto him; and the simple faith of the sick man responded instantly to the healing law of the Christ, Truth, as manifested by Jesus. Upright and free, the erstwhile cripple passed out from the house of mercy a living example of the invincible power of the Christ to heal sickness and sin.
In the beautiful story of Jesus at the well of Sychar we find a clear exposition of the meaning of the water of Life. It is interesting to note that the word translated "well" in the New Testament, as used by Jesus and the Samaritan woman, is represented in the original by two Greek words. The one assigned by the evangelist to the woman better describes a pit, while the word used by Jesus has the meaning of fountain, awaking in thought a sense of purity and activity.
What lessons we find in this woman's meeting with the great Teacher! Gently he led her thought upward from the material sense of things to the spiritual. Reading her past history as though it were an open book, he incisively rebuked the error in her mentality, so that a dim perception of the truth dawned on her benighted thought. Then followed his explanation of true worship as having no material location, since it was "neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," nor as having any definite period of time, since "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." At last the woman, imbued with the wonder of the universe of Spirit unfolding before her awakening thought, left her material waterpot and went her way, to become in some measure—and who knows to what extent?—a distributor of the living water of Truth to those of her own city and time.
Mrs. Eddy has given us the assurance that the wonderful healing gospel of Christ Jesus is as practical now as it was nineteen centuries ago, and that the fountain of the water of Life still flows freely. It is the spiritual sense of the gospel that the Science of Christianity reveals. And it is the steadfast application of this knowledge of Truth in our lives, and the persistent reversal of evil whenever it presents itself to us as a stubborn reality, that can here and now become to us "a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
On page 207 of "Miscellaneous Writings" our Leader says to all, "In hope and faith, where heart meets heart reciprocally blest, drink with me the living waters of the spirit of my life-purpose,—to impress humanity with the genuine recognition of practical, operative Christian Science."
