DISCOURSE IX. THE WATER OF LIFE. [Lincoln's Inn, Sunday after Easter, March 30, 1856.] ST. JOHN IV. 10. _Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water._ The dispute between John's disciples and the Jew, of which I spoke last Sunday, was about purification. Apparently, John's answer to them, when they came to tell him that Jesus was baptizing, and that all men were coming to Him, had little reference to this subject. _Really_ his words threw the greatest light upon it. He did not say whether the baptism of Jesus had a more purifying effect upon those who received it than his baptism. But he spoke of another gift which Jesus, if He was indeed the Son of God, would confer upon those who believed in Him. '_He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life._' It was a mighty thing for men to be purified, to have corruptions removed from them. But corruption is the consequence of death. Where corruption is, death must have entered. He who is the source and spring of life, He who can restore life, must have in Himself the very principle and power of purification. All instruments of purification must derive their virtue from Him. He must be _the_ Purifier. Accordingly it is to this quality of the divine Word, or Son, that St. John has from the first directed our thoughts. '_In Him was life, and the life was the light of men_:' this is the starting-point of his Gospel. The sign in Cana of Galilee was the sign that Jesus was the communicator of life. His discourse with Nicodemus turned altogether upon the life from above which the Spirit of God would confer upon men, and which would enable them to see the kingdom of God. The primary announcement of the forerunner, therefore, respecting the Word made flesh, '_He shall baptize with the Holy Ghost_,' whatever more it might mean, could mean nothing less than this: 'He shall not merely cleanse away defilements; He shall impart the life which those defilements obstruct and seek to extinguish.' John did not say for a moment that water should not be the sign of entrance into the kingdom that was at hand--that it should not be Christ's sign, as it had been his sign;--but he said that it should be the sign, not merely of repentance and remission of sins, but of a higher and eternal _life_.