The story of the well with this significant name is told in few words, but full of interest. How in a few touches of Scripture a living, breathing-picture is made to stand before you; and, examine it closely, the more its perfection appears; the more your wonder and admiration grow.

God works by wonder, as when He drew aside Moses by the burning bush; but, as in that case, the wonder is never a wonder merely:underneath, if you look further, you will find some deep significance, some pregnancy of meaning-a "sign," or significant thing. More than that, where there is need,-where creature weakness and dependency are realized,-the "sign" will develop "power." there will be the ministry of God, the interposition of Omnipotent Love to meet that need. These are the three words which stand for a miracle in Scripture:it is a "wonder," a "sign," and a "power:" and in nothing are these found as they are in Scripture itself. It is one of the mightiest of miracles; and the Lord could say, even of the Old Testament, "if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead"

Now the well Lahai-roi is, I doubt not, the type of Scripture in this very character. It is the "fountain of water" at which the angel of the Lord finds Hagar when she is fleeing from the face of her mistress Sarai, and where, assuring her of the birth and multiplication of her seed, he bids her return to her mistress, and submit herself into her hands. These women are types of which the interpretation is given us. Hagar is the law, which genders to bondage, the servant of grace, the free-woman, as God has ordained. And as we find the well first in connection with Hagar, so the first books of Scripture are the books of the law. Yet it is at this well afterward we find, not a child of the bondwoman, but of the free. Isaac dwells at the well Lahai-roi:it is his possession, as is the Word that of him who believes through grace; and the Word, as ministered in the power of the living Spirit; for as the water is a figure of the Word, so the "living water" is the figure of the Spirit, as the apostle teaches us (Jno. 7:39). By the Word the Spirit ministers, and thus it is that, as the Lord says, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."

Lahai-roi is the Word, thus, with significance and power for the soul, and in which the presence of the living, omniscient God is made apparent. It is so, though under another aspect from that of water, that Hebrews 4:presents it:"living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of joints and marrow, of- soul and spirit, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." And then what have we? "Neither is there any thing that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." This is clearly, in another aspect, Lahai-roi. And how blessed when the Word brings us after this manner into the presence of God, as is its office! Looking at Israel in the type, we may see how in God's meaning, for His children, this is to be no casual or occasional thing. We are to dwell by the well. As children we are to abide in the intimacy of our Father's presence, under His eye, and in the assurance of His fostering care. Our Lord's words are but another expression of this:"If a man love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him"

This is His thought for us, and to be without it is the "orphanage" which He would not have His people know (Jno. 14:18, marg.) How blessed where, through the Word and by the Spirit, Father and Son realize Their presence continually to the soul! How wondrous the intimacy to which we are thus called! Alas, on the other hand, for the feebleness of our actual experience in view of such invitations and assurances! Why do we so fall short? Covet the blessing in its fullness every Christian must:what, then, is the difficulty of attainment, when it is divine grace that is drawing near us? The type before us is very instructive in this particular.

First, Isaac stands before us, not only as the representative of the child of God, but of the child in the child's place,-in the liberty of divine grace known and enjoyed. And this is the first and great prerequisite to the blessing. If grace it is that comes to be entertained, faith, it is on man's part gives it entertainment. How slow we are to enter into God's thoughts, to accredit fully His goodness, and "draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith"! Yet we all know that the least grace we could no more pretend to be worthy of than the greatest, and that God is no less true in one word He speaks than in another. "He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

The second point is, that Isaac is not only the child of the free-woman, but also the type of that great sacrifice which in spirit we are called to be conformed to. "Let that mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robber)- to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and became in the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Such is the pattern put before us, and in this twofold manner Isaac is a type. The result to us of the child's place is absolute surrender to the Father's will; and it is the peculiar fruit of faith, in which the soul's return to God is manifested. Being" in a fallen world, sin being in us and around us, this fruit is found in surrender-in sacrifice. Yet Isaac does not die, but lives; nor is there a life which speaks more of enjoyment and rest, in the book of Genesis, than his after-life. And so is surrender to God. It is the low-seeming portal to all that is bright and blessed and holy in practical life. Nay, what holiness, what blessedness, what freedom, what life of faith at all, can be known apart from it? It is here that for our troubles we find rest, for doubt assurance, for our weakness an everlasting arm. Yet it is in sacrifice we find entrance into this; for we have, alas! ways and wills that are our own, paths of human wisdom hard to relinquish, and a hostile world around. Faith amid it all seeks God, and finds in Him its rock and hiding-place.

Surrender to God must, however, be entire surrender, or it is not this; and here the real and grave condition of so many appears. They fall short, not in performance only, where all must own shortcoming, but in spirit, in intention also. And this may be with even entire unconsciousness as to the fact. Conscience does not reproach, if even it does not very decidedly approve. A standard not far removed from that of men around has been adopted practically with perhaps a theoretical one much higher at the same time, and there is little to alarm. Is not Christ's yoke easy and His burden light? They are not legal, and thank God for grace. They know no raptures, but as little disquiet. But Lahai-roi is not reached. The Word is certainly no full spring of unfailing blessing, realizing to their souls the constant presence of a living God. They have indeed no daily need. Ordinarily, they get on as others do; under more than ordinary pressure, they are forced to God.

How different Lahai-roi, where the Isaacs dwell!-the endeared mutual intercourse with God, wherein a soul lives indeed and grows, and like a tree planted by the water-brooks, brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also doth not wither, and whatsoever he doeth, it prospers. May you and I dwell here, dear reader, in this sweetest portion outside heaven, and where the joy of heaven is already tasted.