Among the various emblems which the Holy Spirit has selected, no one is more frequently used in Scripture than that of water. In the second of Genesis we have an account of a river that went out of Eden to water the garden, which had four heads or branches. This river with four branches was arranged by the Creator as a type of the Holy Spirit watering the souls of men, and the four branches are the typical number of redeemed humanity. And the very names of the branches signify the four stages of the soul's experience under the baptism of the Spirit. Pison means overflowing, which is the first form of experience under the baptism of the Spirit. Gihon signifies streaming, flowing, outbursting, which represents the pushing, driving zeal, under the power of the Spirit. Hiddekel means rapid, running swiftly, and represents the alacrity and zeal with which the soul acts under the power of the Spirit. Euphrates means his sweet waters, and represents the mature, mellow tenderness of boundless love, and sweetness of disposition which the sanctified soul ripens into under the Holy Spirit.

That typical river runs clear through the entire Bible. As from the smitten rock in the wilderness, a pure river poured forth for the people to drink, so from the crucifixion of Jesus, the Holy Ghost, as a pure river, flows forth through the centuries, and over the desert wastes of earth, for God's people to drink.

This river is referred to many times in the Psalms and the prophecies. Jesus speaks of it as flowing through the believer. And the last chapter in Revelation presents us a view of this same river of the eternal Spirit, evermore flowing out from the Father and the Son.

So from the Scriptures we gather that the Holy Spirit is emphatically the water of life, of which we are told to take freely, and to drink to the full. The two greatest functions of water in the natural world are to cleanse and to quench thirst. And we must remember that God selects his types with great precision. The Spirit as a breath imparts life. The Spirit as a fire refines and melts and softens, and gives supernatural unction to the thoughts and words. The Spirit as oil lubricates the natural stiffness of the faculties, and brings out latent capabilities. The Spirit as a dove reproduces all the graces of the Christ-life, warms, protects, communes, woos and wins. The Spirit as a voice arouses, instructs, teaches, warns and reveals things to come, and the things of God. The Spirit as water washes, makes pure, nourishes, causes to grow into fruitfulness and beauty. I<et us consider in more detail.

I. The Holy Spirit under the form of water is to wash us from our sins, both actual and original. This river of water is no less than a Divine Person, assuming the form of an eternal stream, flowing out every moment from eternity to eternity, from the Father and the Son. He executes the will of the Father, and applies to us the precious blood of Jesus. The Spirit uses the precious blood in the language of Scripture as the "fuller's soap," to cleanse away the filthiness of our nature.

This cleansing is twofold. When we are regenerated, all our actual sins, with all the corruptions attaching to them, are washed away by the Holy Ghost applying to us the merit and blood of Jesus. But still there remains in every converted soul the natural evil dispositions which spring up and distress the believer. These inherent, evil dispositions are called by various names in Scripture, such as the carnal mind,"� "the old man,"� "a heart of unbelief,"� "a stony heart,"� the "indwelling sin,"� "the desire of the flesh," "and other terms, all referring to the same thing. It is an inward, secret, subtle fountain out of which flows every form of uncleanness from the inner depths of the human spirit. The Scriptures teach throughout their length and breadth that this inner spring in the soul is to be washed, purged, cleansed from every form of sin. This is the work of the omnipotent, personal Holy Spirit. Hence we read in Ezekiel, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you."� The world is being flooded with a religious literature which teaches the full anointing of the Spirit while denying the possibility and the experience of the believer being washed from every evil disposition, and from every sinful desire and temper. But such writers certainly ignore some tremendous statements in God's word. If you will look all through Scripture and search into the use of the words "cleanse," "purge," "wash,"� "purify,"� "sanctify,"� "make holy,"� to " crucify sin,"� " put away sin,"� " be dead to sin,"� and all such words, there is not a single instance where such terms allow of any sin remaining. And then notice the use of the word " all "� in Scripture in connection with cleansing and saving. It is invariably from "all sin,"� from "all filthiness,"� "from all idols,"� "from all unrighteousness,"� and this word "all"� is God's all and not man's all; that is, it is all from God's standpoint of vision, it is the omnipotent God who affirms over and over that He will cleanse from all sin.

And is it not well nigh blasphemy to say God does not mean just what he says? There is not a single word in the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures which in the least intimates that any sinful thing must remain in the soul. There are twenty words in the Greek Testament that indicate the idea of binding, repressing, controlling, tying, keeping under, and similar ideas, but strange to say, not a single one of these Greek verbs is ever applied to sin as restraining it or keeping it under. Every single verb applied to sin indicates its complete removal -- washing it away.

Now, as all things on earth are washed by water, the garments we wear, the houses we live in, the streets of our cities, the trees, and growing grain, and the air is washed from the dust floating in it, so the Holy Spirit is the Divine Person who is to wash every part of our being from the impurities in the affections, the choices, the tempers, the thoughts; and then, by filling us with himself and by his continual flowing through us, is to preserve us pure. Just as long as a pebble is kept under a clear, flowing stream, it is not only washed, but preserved from defilement. In like manner, when the believer is cleansed from all sin, it is not an act done once for all, but his being kept clean is by continuous union with Jesus, and the ceaseless power of the Spirit abiding in him. There never can be the real enduement of the power of the Spirit except on condition that the believer is utterly yielded to the Holy Spirit for the cleansing of his nature from all sin.

II. It is the function of water to quench thirst, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and to nourish and strengthen all living things. This office of water to nourish living organism is referred to in Scripture about as frequently as its cleansing efficacy. David speaks of being planted by rivers of water, whereby the leaf is kept green, and the fruit brought forth in its season. Isaiah speaks of fountains being open in the desert, causing it to bud and blossom like a garden. Ezekiel speaks of everything living and being fruitful where the river went. All such Scriptures illustrate the Holy Spirit flowing through the believer, quenching his spiritual thirst, and nourishing with Divine moisture the thoughts and affections of the soul, which are like the fine roots of the inner life.

We live amid a thousand wonders in outward nature, being accurately re-enacted in our inner lives. All the animals and plants on the earth are in one sense solidified water, fashioned according to the mysterious form of each living organism. The great trees in the forest, and the summer grain that waves in the field, a few months or years ago, were rain drops falling on the earth, or streams rolling through their channels. The water came in contact with little thirsty rootlets in the ground, it was seized upon by a living organism, which sucked up the water, and turned it into sap, and the sap was turned into wood, or bark, or fruit, or grain, or grass, according to the hidden pattern in the plant life. This is a mystery that no microscope can fathom, and no human intellect can comprehend. Yet it all transpires through every moment of the centuries.

In like manner the human soul is an immortal divinely constructed organism, which coming in contact with the Holy Spirit through the vicarious atonement of Jesus can receive the Holy Spirit up into its organism, and thereby every innate faculty of thought, apprehension, affection, choice, and determination, can expand and grow, and take on magnificent forms of character, and diversified beauty and points of love, far more "real and wonderful than the great forests or fields of golden grain. Just as water in flowing into a living organ adopts itself to the vital form. whether it be a soft wood or hard wood tree, a deciduous or evergreen tree, a plant, or vegetable, or grass; in like manner the Holy Spirit, by flowing into a created soul, adapts Himself to the character, form and to the peculiar mental and spiritual make-up of that soul. And as water will flow up into a plant when the conditions are met until that organism reaches its full stature, whether it be a tiny flower or a giant oak, so the Holy Spirit, who has fashioned each human soul and given to each one his peculiar capabilities, will, if the proper conditions are met, continue to flow into that soul, until it is brought to its full stature in union with Jesus. Just as every variety of fruit that hangs on tree or vine is the exquisite product of the water of the vast ocean flowing up through various forms of plant life, so every beautiful grace, every tender love, every heroic virtue, every transcendent joy, every note of praise, every sweet expression that adorns the millions in heaven or beautifies the saints on earth, is the product from that limitless ocean of the Holy Spirit, flowing into the various forms of angels or men, uniting himself to each nature, adapting himself to each variety of immortal organism, and through the multiplied forms and qualities of each soul, bringing forth that divine fruitage which is the crown and glory of the paradise of God. By secret prayer, by meditating on God's word, by continual yielding of ourselves to God's perfect will, by a pure appropriating faith which apprehends the Holy Spirit as the ocean in which we live, we are to dwell in communion with the Spirit, to drink of the Spirit, to think in the Spirit, to work in the Spirit, that he may keep us cleansed and filled, and cause us each one to bring forth a full fruitage, according to our several gifts, and that by this fruitage of the Spirit through us, Christ as our Redeemer may see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. The very last command in the word of God is that we are to " take the water of life freely so let us put 'o limit to our receiving the fullness of the Spirit.