BibleTools.info

Two evils - First, they forsook God, the Fountain of life, light, prosperity, and happiness. Secondly, they hewed out broken cisterns; they joined themselves to idols, from whom they could receive neither temporal nor spiritual good! Their conduct was the excess of folly and blindness. What we call here broken cisterns, means more properly such vessels as were ill made, not staunch, ill put together, so that the water leaked through them.

The pagan are guilty of but one sin - idolatry; the covenant-people commit two - they abandon the true God; they serve idols.

Fountain - Not a spring or natural fountain, but a tank or reservoir dug in the ground (see Jeremiah 6:7), and chiefly intended for storing living waters, i. e., those of springs and rivulets. The cistern was used for storing up rain-water only, and therefore the quantity it contained was limited.

In those who possess it, the religion of Christ will reveal itself as a vitalizing, pervading principle, a living, working, spiritual energy. There will be manifest the freshness and power and joyousness of perpetual youth. The heart that receives the word of God is not as a pool that evaporates, not like a broken cistern that loses its treasure. It is like the mountain stream fed by unfailing springs, whose cool, sparkling waters leap from rock to rock, refreshing the weary, the thirsty, the heavy laden. COL 130.1

This experience gives every teacher of truth the very qualifications that will make him a representative of Christ. The spirit of Christ's teaching will give a force and directness to his communications and to his prayers. His witness to Christ will not be a narrow, lifeless testimony. The minister will not preach over and over the same set discourses. His mind will be open to the constant illumination of the Holy Spirit. COL 130.2

Christ said, “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.... As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.... It is the Spirit that quickeneth; ... the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:54-63. COL 130.3

The Lord wants wise men and women, acting in the capacity of nurses, to comfort and help the sick and the suffering.... CH 211.1

It is for the object of soul saving that our sanitariums are established. In our daily ministrations we see many careworn, sorrowful faces. What does the sorrow on these faces show? The need of the soul for the peace of Christ. Poor, sad human beings go to broken cisterns, which can hold no water, thinking to quench their thirst. Let them hear a voice saying, “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” “Come to Me, that ye might have life.” Isaiah 55:1; John 5:40. CH 211.2

The work of God is to be carried on without outward display. In establishing institutions, we are never to compete with the institutions of the world in size or splendor. We are to enter into no confederacy with those who do not love or fear God. Those who have not the light of present truth, who are unable to endure the seeing of Him who is invisible, are surrounded by spiritual darkness that is as the darkness of midnight. Within, all is dreariness. They know not the meaning of joy in the Lord. They take no interest in eternal realities. Their attention is engrossed by the trifling things of earth. They make haste unto vanity, striving by unfair means to obtain advantages. Having forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, they hew out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Let it not be thus with those who have tasted the power of the world to come. CH 300.1

Sow the seeds of truth wherever you have opportunity. In establishing the work in new places, economize in every possible way. Gather up the fragments; let nothing be lost.... CH 300.2