"SHALL NEVER THIRST." What a promise! How often we have thirsted! How many weary and unsatisfied hearts there are; and yet this full supply was not intended to be the special portion of some exceptionally favoured soul, for note the SAVIOUR'S word, "Whosoever drinketh", it is free to all. May the Holy Spirit enable us to take our place as included in the "whosoever", and give their full and blessed meaning to those marvellous words, "shall never thirst". To know that "shall" means shall, that "never" means never, that "thirst" means any unsatisfied need, may be one of the greatest revelations GOD has ever made to our souls. Let us not, however, change the SAVIOUR'S words. Note carefully He does not say, Whosoever has drunk, but "drinketh": He speaks, not of one isolated draught, but of the continuous habit of the soul. In this, as in many other passages, it is important to mark the force of continuous habit expressed by the present tense of the Greek verbs. There is full and deep satisfaction at the first draught of the Living Water, which, however, is a perennial supply for constant use. This the LORD brings out more fully when He says, "But the water that I shall give him shall be [or better 'become', RV] in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life". These words explain why the partaking of the Living Water is not followed by renewed thirst. The Living Water becomes a well, a fountain, always available, springing up in the believer, not only leaving no room for thirst, but overflowing for the supply of the need of others unceasingly. Nor is this wonderful promise unique and without parallel. It always was, and is still, the SAVIOUR'S purpose to satisfy. On the occasion of the feeding of the five thousand (John 6), Philip's highest thought was to procure sufficient that everyone should have a little; but the LORD took the little they already had and multiplied it in the giving, so that each one had as much as he would, and twelve baskets were filled with that which remained after all were satisfied. The next day our LORD raised their thoughts to the true Bread from heaven, saying, "I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst". Or more fully and literally, "He who is [habitually] coming to Me, shall by no means hunger, and he who is believing on Me shall by no means thirst at any time". The Greek word is the same as that used in the passage, "No man has seen God at any time". The habit of coming in faith to Him is incompatible with unmet hunger and thirst. Again, in John 7 CHRIST says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that is believing on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of him shall flow rivers of living water; this spake He of the Spirit, which those who are believing on Him should receive."