MEETS. – Charles Spurgeon

 A ship on her way to Australia met with a very terrible storm,andsprunga]cak. As evils seldom come alone, a little while after another tempest assailed her. There happened to be a gentleman on board, of the most nervous tempera- ment, whose garrulous tongue and important air were calculated to alarm all the passengers. When the storm came on, the capt;iin, who kin’-u wh.u misdvief maybe done by a suspicious and talkative individual, managed to get near him with a view to rendering him quiet. The gentlemen addressing the captain, said in a tone of alarm, ” What an awful storm ; I am afraid we shall go to the bottom, for I hear the leak is very had.” “Well,” said the captain, ” as you seem to know it, and perhaps the others do not, you had better not mention it to any one, lest you should frighten the passengers or dispirit my men. Perhaps as it is a very bad case, you would lend us your valuable help, and then we may possibly get through it. Would you have the goodness to stand here and hold hard on this rope ; pray do not leave it, but pull as hard as ever you can till I tell you to let it go.” So our friend clenched his teeth, and put his feet firmly down, and kept on holding this rope with all his might, till he earnestly wished for a substitute. The storm abated ; the ship was safe, and our friend was released from his rope-holding. He expected a deputation would bring him the thanks of all the passengers, but they were evidently unconscious of his merits ; for it is too often the case that we forget our greatest benefactors. Even the captain did not seem very grateful ; so our hero ventured, in a roundabout style to hint, that such valuable services as his, having saved the vessel, ought  to be rewarded at least with some few words of acknowledg- ment ; when he was shocked to hear the captain say, ” What, sir, do you think you saved the vessel? Why, I gave you that rope to hold to keep you engaged, that you might not be in such a feverish state of alarm.”

        The self-righteous may here see how much men con- tribute to their own salvation apart from Christ. They think they can certainlv save [.hi”! selves, and there they stand holding the rope with their clenched teeth and their feel tightly fixed, while they are really doing no more than our officious friend, who was thus befooled. If ever you get to heaven, you will find that everything you did towards your own salvation, apart from the Lord Jesus, was about as useful as holding the rope ; that in fact, the safety of the soul lies somewhere else, and not in you ; and that what is wanted with you is just to get out of the way, and let Christ come in and magnify his grace.

THE sharp shrill cry of “Acqua! Acqua!” constantly pierces the ear of the wanderer in Venice and other towns of sultry Italy. There is the man who thus invites your attention. Look at him. On his back he bears a burden of water, and in his hand a rack of bottles containing essences to flavour the draught if needed, and glasses to hold the cooling liquid. In the streets of London he would find but little patronage, but where fountains are few and the days are hot as an oven, he earns a livelihood and supplies a public need. The present specimen of water-dealers is a poor old man bent sideways, by the weight of his daily burden. He is worn out in all but his voice, which is truly startling in its sharpness and distinct- ness. At our call he stops immediately, glad to drop his burden on the ground, and smiling in prospect of a customer. He washes out a glass for us, fills it with spark- ling water, offers us the tincture which we abhor, puts it back 

the rack again when we shake our head, receives half-a- dozen soldi with manifest gratitude, and trudges away across he square, crying still, “Acqua! Acqua!” That cry, shrill as as sounded sweetly in the ears of many a thirsty sou!, 11 for ages yet to come, if throats and thirst survive so How forcibly it calls to our mind the Saviour’s imagery, in which he compares the grace which he bestows on all who diligently seek it, to ” living water ;” and how much that old man is like the faithful preacher of the word, who, having filled his vessel at the well, wears him- self out by continually bearing the burden of the Lord, and crying, ” Water ! water ! ” amid crowds of sinners, who must drink or die. Instead of the poor Italian water-bearer, we see before us the man of God, whose voice is heard in the chief places of concourse, proclaiming the divine invitation, ” Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ! ” until he grows grey in the service, and men say, ” Surely those aged limbs have need of rest ;” yet rest he courts not, but pursues his task of mercy ; never laying down his charge till he lays down his body, and never ceasing to work until he At the door of Saint Mark’s Cathedral, we bought a glass of what should have been the pure element, but when we began to drink, a pungent flavour of something which had previously been in the cup, made us leave the rest of our pur- chase, thirsty though we were. The water was good enough, but the vessel which held it imparted an evil taste to it ; the like has often happened in the ministry, the gospel preached has been true and divine, but the unhallowed savour of an incon- siitenr life, or a bitter disposition, has marred the s of the Word. May all of us by whom the Lord hands o water of life, see that we are clean and pure ii vessels fit for the Master’s use. Men who are very thirsty will drink out of any cup, however dirty; but no conceivable advan- tage can arise from filth, and hundreds will turn away from the  water because of it, and thus a very faulty ministry may be useful because of the truth contained in it, but its sinful- ness can do no good, and may serve as an excuse to the ungodly for refusing the gospel of Christ

In the square of the Doge’s palace are two wells, from which the sellers of water obtain their stock-in-trade, but we can hardly compare either of them with the overflowing spring from which the preacher of righteousness draws his supplies. One of the wells is filled artificially and is not much used for drinking, since the coldness and freshness of water springing naturally from earth’s deep fountains is lacking. It is to be feared that many preachers depend for their matter upon theological systems, books, and mere learning, and hence their teaching is devoid of the living power and refreshing influence which is found in communion with ” the spring of all our joys.” The other well yields most delicious water, but its flow is scanty. In the morning it is full, but a crowd of eager persons drain it to the bottom, and during the day as it rises by driblets, every drop is contended for and borne away, long before there is enough below to till a bucket. In its excellence, continuance and naturalness, this well might be a fair picture of the grace of our Lord Jesus, but it fails to

set him forth frot

an overflow, an

n its poverty of supply. He has a redunde

infinite fulness, and there is no possibili

his being exhau

though ten thou;

sted by the draughts made upon him,

sand times ten thousand should come w:

thirst as deep I

” Spring up,

with copper, intc

by the waiting n

of the coveted

is the abyss. We could not help sa’

well,” as we looked over the margin cov

> which strings and ropes — continually 1

lany — had worn deep channels. Very

liquid was brought up each time, but

as fast as there 1

vas’ a cupful to be had. O that men

• half as diligent :

which are pricel

in securing the precious gifts of the S]

ess beyond compare ! Alas ! how few 1

David’s thirst for the well of Bethlehem. The cans sent down had very broad sides, so that they dropped down flat upon the bottom of the well, and were drawn up less than half full ; larger vessels would have been useless, and so, indeed, would small ones if they had not been made to lie quite down upon their sides, along what we must call the floor of the well, and had they have been erect they would not have received a drop. Humility is always a profitable grace; pride is always as useless as it is foolish. Only by bowing our minds to the utmost before the Lord, can we expect to receive his mercy, for he promises grace unto the humble in that same verse which foretells his resistance of the proud. If there be grace anywhere, contrite hearts will get it. The lower ive can kill, Lin: soone- “ill the spi ^’i ; ;;’_; w ater of giace reach us, and the more completely shall we be filled with it. ‘

It would be a great misfortune for those who buy their water in the streets, if the itinerant vendors should begin to fill their casks and bottles from muddy streams. At Botzen, in the Tyrol, we saw many fountains running with a liquid of a very brown colour, and a seller of such stuff might cry ” Acqua !” very long and very loudly before we should partake of his dainties. Sundry divines in our age have become weary of the old-fashioned well of which our fathers drank, and would fain have us go to their Abana and Pharpar, but we are still firm in the belief that the water from the rock has no rival, and we shall not, we hope, forsake it for any other. May the Lord send to our happy land more simple gospel, more Christ-exalting doctrine, more free-grace teaching, more distinct testimony to atoning blood and eternal love. In most of theSwiss village? there are streaming fountains bythedozen, and the pure liquid is to be had at every corner ; may we yet see the Word of God as abundantly distributed in every town, viDage, and hamlet in England. Meanwhile, having recorded the prayer, we resolve, by divine grace, to cry more loudly than ever, “Acqua! Acqua!”