April 17

CHRIST'S THIRST.

I thirst.—John 19:28.

JESUS had now been nailed to the cross for several hours, — the moment of his death was at hand. All that had been written of him in the prophets and the psalms had been fulfilled, except one passage, and that is now realised, by the intense thirst which he endures. As it had been predicted, "His strength indeed was dried up like a potsherd, and his tongue cleaved to his jaws, and he was brought unto the dust of death." (Psalms 22:16.) When we contemplate the accumulated sufferings which he had borne during the last twelve hours, we need not wonder that the fluids of his precious body were dried up, and that intolerable thirst necessarily followed. It is also deserving of notice, that thirst is the most distressing sensation of which the body is capable, and is therefore employed to represent the misery of lost souls. Jesus as our substitute, had to endure what was equal to that misery, and never perhaps, was that more fully realised, than when he exclaimed, "I thirst." Jesus, too had to pass through the dreary shades of dissolution, that he might have fellowship with his believing people. Here then he feels the racking torture of dying thirst, and he knows how to succour, how feelingly to sympathise with his people, when they are enduring the agonies of death. Christ's exclamation of thirst, met with no sympathy from the rocky hearted multitude. But they gave the illustrious Jesus, "vinegar mixed with hyssop to drink." Thus, that passage was literally fulfilled,—"They gave also gall for my meat, and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink" (Psalms 69:21.) Let us not however lose sight of the glorious consequences of Christ's excruciating thirst to us. Thus, has he obtained for us the streams of salvation here, and the ceaseless flowing rivers of pleasures at his right hand for evermore. He now invites from his Mediatorial throne, and says whosoever will come, may come, and take of the waters of life freely.