06.07. Deepen the Well!

Deepen the Well! By all means deepen the well! The water is earthy and brackish — the supply is scanty — therefore, go deeper! Take spade and pick-axe — remove the soil — and by and by the water will spring up more fresh, more pure, more abundant. But what is this well? There is a deep, unfathomable Well-spring of grace and mercy in Christ. He is the Well of Life — He is the very Fountain of Living Waters. This Well needs no deepening. Yesterday, today, and forever, it is full to overflowing, for all who resort to it. But there is another well. Those who receive of Christ this living water become themselves little wells, little fountains, having in their hearts this grace, and thence becoming sources of blessing to others; by their words and prayers and Christian example, passing on to those around them the good they themselves have received.

We have the promise of the Old Testament, (Isaiah 58:11): "You shall be like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." And this promise is confirmed and explained by Christ Himself (John 4:14): "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." So again in John 7:37-38 : "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Here is true spiritual life. The living water, the grace of the blessed Spirit of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit revealing . . .
sin in all its terrible deformity;
God in His holiness, justice, mercy, and truth;
Christ as all-sufficient to meet every need of the soul — the only Savior, able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him — by means of the truth permeating the whole spiritual man — the mind, the memory, the will, the affections, the imagination; and thus quickening, sanctifying, elevating man, and making him meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.

It is well to distinguish true spiritual life from its COUNTERFEITS.

There may be the gift of utterance — and no spiritual life. Balaam, and Judas, and multitudes beside have had this — and yet have been dead in trespasses and sins. "Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not love" (one of the blessed graces of the Spirit), "I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." Men may offer fine prayers before others, men may preach eloquent sermons — and yet be far from God. The most wicked man, the most consummate hypocrite I ever knew — was one of the most gifted preachers, and could electrify an audience by his persuasive oratory.

There may be participation in outward ordinances — and yet no spiritual life. The principle of Romans 2:28-29, applies to all ages of the Church’s history: "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God."

Ever remember that it is only when sacraments are rightly received, that they bring a blessing from God. Who can tell the numbers who frequent the table of the Lord — and yet never feed on Him in their hearts by faith?

There may be emotion, the manifestation of deep feeling — and yet no spiritual life. There is often . . .
a devout frame of mind under a fervent sermon,
or the stirring of the heart under the sound of sweet music,
or convictions of danger at some solemn season. And yet this may prove a temporary breath of religiousness, which has no root, and no lasting effect.

There may be outward separation from the world — and yet no spiritual life. There may be an ascetic life — years passed in a nunnery or monastery — and this may be the working of a self-righteous spirit, striving to obtain by mortification of the flesh, the pardon which God loves to bestow as the free gift of His unspeakable love. Or there may be in Evangelical circles, an abstinence from all that the world calls pleasure — and yet the love of the Father perchance is not reigning supreme within the heart.

There may be great activity in the Lord’s vineyard — and yet no spiritual life. It is much easier to be active workers — than to be constant in prayer, and living a life of faith before God. The Church of Sardis by her labors had a name to live, but she was dead. And may there not sometimes be a forced activity to silence conscience, and this just because there is no life — a cloak to cover your dead soul festering in its corruption?

It seems to me that the one chief feature of the spiritual life is this — Christ is a great reality to the living soul. Once He was but a name — but One at a very far distance — One perhaps feared as a Judge, or regarded as One we might fall back upon by-and-by, when the world had lost its attraction. But now how changed is all this!

Perhaps, dear reader, this was your view a short time ago; but God has been of late teaching you precious lessons, and now old things have passed away — and all things have become new.

Christ is now to you a Friend dearer than those you love best on earth. His friends are your friends. His name fills your heart with unspeakable joy.

You look to Him for all grace and help and strength.

You love to think of His promises. His presence is your resource in solitude or in trial.

You love to work for Him, and to lay at His feet all you possess, to be employed in His happy service. His Word has become to you a new book. It speaks to your very heart, and reminds you continually of His love.

You can say in a measure with Paul, "Christ lives in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me! To me to live is Christ — to die is gain." A dying Christian in India was telling of her hope.
She put her hand on her Bible, and she said, "I have Christ here!"
And then she put her hand near her heart, and she said, "I have Christ here!"
And then she pointed up to Heaven, and said, "I have Christ there!"

Such is the spiritual life of which I speak. "This is life eternal, to know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

Reader, is this life yours? Dead men cannot abide long in the house of the living. "Give me a burying-place," said Abraham, "that I may bury my dead out of my sight." Thus dead souls cannot dwell in glory with living saints. There must be a separation. Are you dead in sins? Christ’s voice calls you: Awake and live! Come forth from the grave of your sins this very hour, and Christ is near to give you light and life!

Perhaps in the heart of some reader of this little book there may of late have been awakened a desire for this spiritual life — and yet you feel uncertain how to obtain it. Take it as a certain truth, that the way is very simple, and the blessing very near. Look at it in this light: Christ stands at your door; His heart full of love and compassion, His hands are full of gifts, having for you the gift of repentance, pardon, and the grace of His Spirit, and longing to bestow them upon you. Some go on for years, asking and praying in an unbelieving sort of spirit — and then wonder that they do not find comfort. Why, friend, it is not so much your prayer to Christ, as for you to see that Jesus is entreating you to accept His love and mercy and salvation, entreating you to let Him enter the sanctuary of your heart, and there to dwell; bestowing on you all the blessings of His friendship, of reconciliation with God, and of the new life of holiness and love.

Hearken to those words of the Apostle, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we beg you in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God."

You must take His outstretched hand; you must, in a believing spirit, look to Him for that which He delights to bestow. Your prayer is not to be the difficult task of obtaining from One unwilling to give — but the blessed, happy, joyful one, of heartily receiving the unspeakable benefit which your best Friend loves to grant to you.

If you want this spiritual life, don’t fix your eye on Self in any shape — neither your prayer, nor your sense of need, nor your repentance, nor your faith; all this is utterly deficient, and will make you ready to despair. But look up to Him who delights to give all — grace to pray, grace to repent, grace to trust; and He will honor your confidence, and exceed all your thoughts in the richness and abundance of His bounty. But if you are already in possession of true spiritual life in Christ, there is need of its evermore being deepened. There needs a greater realization of divine things, a fuller life, a more abundant influx of grace from the Fountainhead. You may be sure that the deeper the life . . .
the more full will be the joy,
the more will you be able to glorify God, and
the greater your usefulness in His service.

It is not so much increase of gifts that we need, as increase of grace to make us vessels fit for the Master’s use and prepared for every good work.

Very certain it is likewise, that the best way to prevent a relapse into worldly habits, and a return to a cold and lukewarm spirit — is to make continual progress in the Divine life, to strive after higher attainments, and to drink deeper into the ocean of Divine love.

Very strongly would I urge upon any who have lately set out in the Christian life, never to relax their efforts to obtain more and more grace and life in Christ. I know of nothing more sorrowful than to see a young Christian, at first very zealous and prayerful, slipping back little by little into habits of worldliness or inconsistency — instead of going from strength to strength, and each year and each month manifesting more evidently the blessed fruits of the indwelling Spirit. But how may you deepen your Christian life?

(1) Keep clear and distinct the blessed truth that your acceptance and justification before God, are not dependent upon the measure of spiritual life which you possess.

If you wish to have a deepening spiritual life, take care not to confound your justification with the sanctifying grace which dwells in you. For the growth of the inner life as well as for our peace, the eye must rest on Christ alone. He alone is your Ransom, your Substitute, your Righteousness before the throne of God. You never can enjoy the least assurance of pardon, or sense of fellowship with God — unless the ground of it is altogether independent of yourself.

Only consider how great is your guiltiness; what utter unworthiness, what sins, deficiencies, failings in everything, would bar all approach to a just and holy God, were it not that you have a plea which cannot be gainsaid. A bride was passing out of the Church where she had just been married, and a friend threw down a few flowers at the feet of the newly married couple. A few drops of the water in which the flowers had been kept, touched the bride’s dress, and shortly after a tiny speck was noticed upon it. "A spot of sin as small as this, would shut either of us out of Heaven," was the remark made. But as seen by the eye of a heart-searching God, what numberless foul blots and stains defile the robe of each of us! and how could we then appear before Him unless clothed in the immaculate Righteousness which He has provided through the merits and death of His well-beloved Son? But when casting off all trust in self — in converted self as well as unconverted self — we repose all our confidence in Christ our Righteousness, we can then enjoy peace with God, and seek at His footstool increase of all spiritual blessings. In St. Stephen’s Church, Carlisle, I noticed a memorial erected to the late Rev. Waldegrave, having engraved upon it an extract from his will, executed shortly before his death, and which testifies the blessed consolation this hope affords. "I desire in the first place to testify that I die in the faith of Christ crucified, and as a sinner saved by grace alone, humbly trusting in the alone blood and righteousness of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and in the full assurance of that eternal and unchangeable love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one Triune God, which it has been my joy and delight to have been permitted to proclaim throughout my beloved diocese, and which doctrines, as they have been my comfort in life are now my stay and support in the prospect of death and eternity; and I commend all those over whom I have had the oversight, both pastors and flocks, to God and to the Word of His grace."

(2) We may deepen spiritual life by gaining clearer views of our own depravity in the light of God’s holiness and majesty.

JOB was a true man. He was accepted by God. He walked before Him in sincerity and uprightness. But in his earlier life there was but a partial knowledge of himself and his sin. But the well was deepened. His sore afflictions brought him much nearer to God. He learned to regard sin in a far different light. He learned to see his own life under the piercing ray of the Divine glory. Then he was humbled in the dust. "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear — but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes!"

It was thus with the Prophet ISAIAH. He had a vision of Jehovah sitting on His throne. He heard the seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts." Then came the overwhelming conviction of His own defilement: "Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!" There was a deepening of the well, more experience of the reality and evil of sin, and afterward a fuller joy in the sense of its forgiveness.

Oh, Christians, let us strive to get into God’s light! Let us more realize His solemn Presence, His Holiness, His Majesty. Let us enter into the experience of Psalms 139:1-24. In God’s presence let us seek to lay bare our inmost thoughts and ways. Let us cast away all covering and excuse, and desire above everything to know ourselves as He sees us to be: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there is any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

(3) Deepen the spiritual life by avoiding all that checks and impedes its flow, and by diligent use of all the means of grace which God has appointed for its increase. A recent historian has described the course of the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. He tells how the one loses much of its waters in the marshy lands through which it flows, and reaches the mouth with far less body and depth of water than it possessed in an earlier part of its course. But the Tigris presents a great contrast to this. It retains the water it possessed in its earlier course; while receiving tributaries on both sides, it grows deeper and fuller as it empties its waters into the sea.

Thus it is with two Christians. The one loses much life and comfort and grace in the marshy lands of uncertain doctrine, of unscriptural views, of worldly conformity. Ah, the river grows very shallow . . .
when luxury and ease and self-pleasing bear sway;
when the tongue is full of every name but the One Name;
when the claims of business supersede the claims of God’s kingdom;
when doubtful maxims are followed instead of the plain precepts of the Word;
when eagerness to obtain more wealth shuts up the hand that once was liberal;
when the safe rule of avoiding scenes of temptation relaxes little by little. Nor less is the danger to the spiritual life when unscriptural expedients are made use of to promote it. The Holy Spirit is the bestower of all real spiritual life. He also is the Author of the Holy Scriptures, which He has given that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And we may be sure that He will never work by means opposed to the spirit of that Word. When men resort to habitual confession to a priest, instead of laying bare the heart to Him who searches the thoughts; or when men go out of the world and take monastic vows; or when a multitude of ceremonies and self-imposed ordinances distract the thoughts and burden the conscience — these things in the end will rather hinder than forward the life of the soul, because they lead away from the close spiritual fellowship with the Father and the Son, which above all things is essential. With another Christian it is very different. The stream of spiritual life deepens day by day, and week by week. Like the river Tigris, he gets help from tributary streams. He gains assistance from all those precious means of grace which Christ has appointed to refresh us in our pilgrimage.

Oh, Christian, be zealous to improve these merciful provisions of our gracious Father!

Take deeper draughts of the river of Divine truth. Go to Holy Scripture with a prayer and determination to understand more of its revelations of Christ, of your eternal inheritance, of your own position of privilege and responsibility. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Take the old promises and encouragements with which you have been familiar for years, and by devout meditation upon them, by placing them close beside your own sins, and fears, and necessities — see if they do not stand out in fresh life and power.

Take, again, other portions, such as the Book of the Chronicles, or the minor Prophets, with which perhaps you have been less familiar, and carefully examine them until you find food for thought which perhaps you little expected.

Let there be more of the spirit of prayer. Let there be more reality in the assurance that God is very near at hand, that each prayer-word in Jesus’ name is a power-word, that sooner shall the throne of God be shaken than that a single believing petition offered by the weakest or most unworthy suppliant miss the mark, or fail of securing the best answer.

Let there be more fellowship and communion with God’s people. Greatly do most Christians lose the profit they might gain from this. Oh, that we could get rid of the stiffness and formality and cold civilities that too often take the place of the hearty, loving fellowship on the things of God, that ought to exist. Dear reader, try to break down this stone wall that separates one Christian heart from another, and hinders many a word of help, many a prayer, many a suggestion for some new labor of love in the Lord’s Vineyard.

Let there be a frequent drawing near to the holy table. There renew your covenant with God; there gain fresh views of Christ’s dying love; there feed in faith on that body broken, and that blood shed on the cross for you.

Let there be a constant effort to give back in blessing to others the grace and consolation which God has given you. In giving to others — we receive more from God. "He who waters — shall be watered." We ought not to be like the Dead Sea, which receives unto itself the flow of the Jordan, but gives nothing in return. Rather should we be like the Sea of Galilee, which receives at its northern extremity, and then gives forth at its southern. I am sure there is a blessing in striving to impart to others the knowledge of salvation. A few years ago, a young man went out to India in the civil service, because he felt scarcely prepared for the solemn responsibility of entering the ministry of the Church. At an outstation in India where he was stationed, a dying soldier spent a few weeks before his course was run. The young man felt it his duty to go and read to him, and teach him as far as he knew of the Word of God. His hours spent by that sick bed were the happiest of his life. He learned to see the love of Christ as he had never seen it before. To use his own language — in trying to convert the soldier, God converted him, as well as fulfilled his desire to be useful to the dying man.

Let Christians remember, too, how guilty will they be in holding back the knowledge from others by which alone they can be saved. I have heard that a member of the medical profession, in commencing practice, has to take a solemn oath that if ever he should discover any medicine likely to be largely beneficial to mankind — he will not withhold the discovery, but declare it openly for the general benefit. And if we have been taught the value of that blessed remedy for human guilt, the precious blood of the cross — shall we hesitate to do our best everywhere to make it known among others?

DEEPEN THE WELL! Yes — why should we not? Why be content with a scanty measure of blessing — when the fountain is so full? "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." And if the purpose of Christ’s coming is thus to give more abundantly — will He refuse a large supply of Divine grace to a soul that thirsts after it?

We have an example of such longings in the Book of Psalms. "As the deer pants after the water-brooks — so pants my soul after You, O God." "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God — when shall I come and appear before God?" "O God, You are my God — early will I seek You. My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water." "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside You!"

It would prove of great help to Christians if they would endeavor often, amidst the busy duties of life, to stir up their hearts in such desires and meditations as these. They bring a rich reward. God satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." But very especially would I ask the attention of the reader to the prayers of the Apostle Paul as presenting to us, in a most instructive form, the longing of Christian hearts for more of this spiritual life. Look at Paul’s prayer for the Roman Christians: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit."

We look up to God Himself. He, the God of hope, the God of peace, the God of all grace — delights to send the power of His Spirit to fill the souls of His poor needy children with a heavenly joy, an abiding peace, an aspiring hope. And it is in the way of believing that we can enjoy this. Trusting in Him who is the Root and Offspring of David, as in the previous verse, the Holy Spirit bestows a joy which is unspeakable. But look also at the prayer of the Apostle for the Ephesians. (Ephesians 3:14-21.) I know no description like it of a deep spiritual life within the soul. And now just glance at this exquisite prayer, one we should do well often to use on our knees before God when asking for more depth in our religion: "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (what sweet confidence is here — the Father of Christ — hence my Father in Him).

"That He would grant you according to the riches of His glory." Here is the treasury from which comes our supply. His own glorious riches — His all-sufficient grace. His own hand full of all goodness and bounty.

"To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." Or, as in Colossians 1:10, "Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power." The Holy Spirit raising the soul above its own native feebleness, conferring an energy, a secret force enabling it to resist temptation, to bear sorrow, to toil and labor in the vineyard.

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." The shrine, the sanctuary filled with a vivid realization of the Lord’s presence with His child, and this in the exercise of continual reliance upon Him.

"That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge." Here the idea is the tree with the roots going deep into the ground of God’s love, or the building resting on the immovable basis of that love — and then the soul learning out little by little that which will ever surpass all possibility of comprehension. High is the Heaven, deep is Hell, broad is the sea, long is eternity — but higher, and deeper, and broader, and longer, is Christ’s love — and blessed is it to reach after the knowledge of it, though we must ever fall short.

"That you might be filled with all the fullness of God." Ah, what an abounding fullness here! Compare Colossians 1:19 : "It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell;" and Colossians 2:9-10 : "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority!" which seems the right rendering of the passage.

Here is a supply out of which to draw. Deepen the well! Yes, you may indeed. You are not straitened in the Lord, but in yourself — in your low desires, in your unbelief, in your lack of prayer. For it is prayer which gains all — the prayer which springs from faith. Unspeakably great as is the measure of blessing referred to in this passage — yet mark how the Apostle closes it. "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages world without end. Amen."