October 22

En the wilderness shall waters break out.

ISAIAH XXXV. 6.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.—REV. XXI. 6.

WE have here a statement, "I will give," etc.; a fact, "it is done." The speaker is (verse 5) "he that sat upon the throne," the Omnipotent; here he is "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end," the eternal.

This is therefore a fundamental, spiritual law on the authority of the Omnipotent and with the witness of the Eternal. Material laws exist in and with matter as essentials. This is an essential law of the spirit universe. Nature, with forces always omnipotent in their realm, abhors and fills a vacuum. Omnipotence and eternity make a spiritual vacuum forever impossible. The soul thirsts; it is satisfied. It cries out for God; God is its possession; the want is the realization.

The measure is, "freely;" the quantity, what Omnipotence can give; the continuance, while eternity endures.

When the sinner, like the prodigal, "comes to himself," he has fact, not promise only. Jesus says, "Come, for all things are ready." In Jesus Christ "the Almighty," "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," the soul, thirsting, is forever satisfied; and whosoever drinks has in him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

Here see the bread of life; see waters flowing Forth from the throne of God, pure from above. Come to the feast of love; come ever knowing Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove.

THOMAS MOORE (altered).