So Jesus gently deals with the Samaritan, reading her heart and showing her what she was and leading her upward from the well of Jacob to the wellsprings that are found in Jacob's God.
Whosoever drinketh 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.
Two features of this promised gift arrest us. (a) The first is that he that drinketh of the living stream shall never thirst again.
But do we not find the Psalmist saying, "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God?
Is every longing of the soul satisfied forever when we have tasted of the wells of God?
Nay, God forbid. The more we drink of holiness, the more we thirst for it.
The more we drink of purity, the more we crave it.
The more we taste of God, the more we long for Him.
But under the power of this new affection, sinful affections gradually die; and baser cravings that dominated once sink slowly in this newborn life in God until at last the very craving is forgotten, and having tasted God, we thirst no more.
(b) And then this fountain is within our heart.
This poor Samaritan had to take her pitcher and run the gauntlet of the village street whenever she wanted a draught of Jacob's well.
But the gladness and the peace are within us when we have truly met with Jesus Christ.
There is a sense in which a Christian is dependent.
There is another sense in which a Christian is the most independent man alive.
He can go singing under the dullest skies; he can have royal fellowship in crowded streets, for he carries his heaven in his heart, and heaven in the heart is heaven on earth.
~George Morrison~