ILLUSTRATIUNS OF SCRIPTURE. 113 
that we could not live without water, yet from our 
scarcely ever knowing the want of it in this 
country, we can hardly conceive what the inhabi- 
tants of very hot climates sometimes endure, when 
their springs and wells are dried up, and they can 
with difficultyprocure enough water to keep them- 
selves and their cattle alive. During a great part 
of the year no rain falls, and the heat of the sun 
is such, that often it is only in very deep wells that 
any water can be found. The grass and other 
plants are then withered and parched, so that, 
except on the banks of a stream or river, not a 
spot of green is found to refresh the eye. In 
travelling, especially, the sufferings from want of 
water are often dreadful; people take with them 
as much as they can carry, in goat skins, which 
they use instead of glass bottles.* But if their 
stock is exhausted before they arrive at their 
journey’s end, both they and their horses and 
camcels sometimes perish from thirst. You may 
remember, in your last book of lessons, an account 
of this in the Story of a Desert, You see, there- 
fore, that to have plenty of water was quite a 
luxury to the Jews, In Scripture, we often find 
the knowledge of God compared to rivers or pools 
of water; and one of the prophets, who foretold 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, says, that 
“ £he parched ground shall become a pool, and the 
thirsty land springs of water;” meaning, that as 
water would refresh a dry and barren spot, and 
even make it fertile, so our Lord Jesus would, 
* Wine was also kept in this kind of bottle which is in use to 
this day, not only In Asia, but in some parts of the South of 
Europe