Morning, June 13, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost (freely, KJV).” — Revelation 22:17

Jesus says, “take freely.” He wants no payment or preparation. He seeks no recommendation from any of your virtuous emotions. If you lack good feelings, if you are only willing, you are invited; therefore come! If you have no belief and no repentance—come to him— he will give them to you. Come just as you are, and take “Freely,” without money and without price. He gives himself to needy ones. The drinking fountains in our parks and buildings are valuable institutions; and we can hardly imagine any one so foolish as to feel for his wallet, when he stands before one of them, and to cry, “I cannot drink because I have no cash in my pocket.” However poor the man is, there is the fountain, and just as he is, he may drink of it. Thirsty travelers, as they go by, whether they are dressed in course wool or in silk, do not look for any permit for drinking; its being there is their permit for taking its water freely. The kindness of some good friends has put the refreshing crystal drink there and we take it and ask no questions. Perhaps the only persons who need go thirsty through the street where there is a drinking fountain, are the fine ladies and gentlemen who are in their fine automobiles. They are very thirsty but cannot think of being so unrefined as to get out to drink. It would demean them, they think, to drink at a common drinking fountain: so they ride by with parched lips. Oh, how many there are who are rich in their own good works and cannot therefore come to Christ! “I will not be saved,” they say, “in the same way as the harlot or the blasphemer. What! Go to heaven in the same way as a janitor? Is there no pathway to glory but the path which led the thief there? I will not be saved that way.” Such proud boasters must remain without the living water; but, “Whosoever wills, let him TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY.”