Prophets and holy men had discovered--all men had in some measure discovered--that there are cravings which no fountains on earth can satisfy. The Jewish nation existed to declare that in God Himself is the fountain of life; that the spirit can only find its life in Him. John the Baptist had said that He who had been before Him, and was coming after Him, would baptize with the Holy Spirit. And now He who had declared that He was sent from the Father, and was a short time with them, and would return to Him, declares that whoever believed on Him should not only be satisfied out of the fulness of God Himself, but '_that from him should flow rivers of living water_;' that he should receive only to give; that his blessing should be to communicate, because that is the blessing of the divine nature, of which he is admitted to participate. Had these words stood by themselves, we might interpret them as they are so often interpreted of the individual believer. We might say,--'These are the choice gifts, the peculiar treasures, which Christ bestows upon His most favoured servants,--upon them whose faith is the most simple and the most full.' There is a true, a most important, meaning in such language; and we should have no right to complain of any one who deduced it, and it alone, from our Lord's discourse at the Tabernacle, if His own beloved disciple had not gone out of his way to point out another signification of that discourse, not inconsistent with this, but certainly far wider and deeper, and, I conceive, most necessary to save this from a perilous abuse. When he tells us that He spoke this of the Spirit, '_which was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified_,' he evidently connects the fulfilment of the promise with one of the acts which Christ was to do for mankind. The Spirit had before spoken by the Prophets; when He was exalted on high, '_the tabernacle of God was indeed to be with men, and He was to dwell among them, and to be their Father, and they were to be His children_.' No doubt a man must have faith in Jesus before rivers of living water can flow from him which shall bless human beings and make the world fruitful. But it must be faith in Him as the Head of man, as the Redeemer of the race; it must be faith which raises the man above self-seeking and self-glorying; it must be faith that refers its own origin to this very Spirit, which He gives because He is glorified.