Water

My dear young friends,

On June 13 [1925] the King opened London’s new reservoir at Littleton, near Laleham, Middlesex. It forms an important part of the Metropolitan Water Board’s scheme for improving the water supply of London. The basin is nearly eight hundred acres in area. When the basin is filled—an operation which is estimated to take about three months—it will contain 6,750,000,000 gallons of water [six billion seven hundred fifty million] to a depth of about forty feet. A cost of £2,145,364 (well over $200 million USD/CAD today) has been involved in its construction, and to make room for the reservoir, part of the village of Littleton was demolished, while the River Ash at one point had to be diverted. In an address to the King, Mr. C.G. Musgrave, chairman of the Board, said that when filled the reservoir could provide anchorage for a fleet of battleships. It is larger than all the other Thames Valley reservoirs put together and will hold enough water to supply the capital’s seven million inhabitants for a month. The Times contains an exceedingly interesting article on London’s water supply, with which many rulers of England have been directly or indirectly associated. In 1236, Henry III granted liberty to the citizens of London to bring water from a stream named Tyburn to the city through leaden pipes.

Reflect on this—water brought into the city of London from Tyburn through leaden pipes! In 1236 the conducting— or conduit—of water in the above manner was possibly regarded as a triumph of engineering skill. Contrast that work with the building of vast reservoirs for storing, and the underground structures for distributing, the essential supply of water to the city proper and to London’s teeming millions. Think of the expert knowledge required to weigh and measure the volume of water to be contained in one place! The foundations must bear the weight of almost seven hundred billion gallons of water; the walls must resist the pressure of the vast body! All this human skill is required for the health of our Babylon, in the midst of which are some of the sons of Zion.

We are not to think that engineering is of recent birth. To go back no farther than King Hezekiah, who lived seven hundred years before Christ, we learn from the sacred, inspired record that there was considerable knowledge of that science in his day. The Bible reads, “And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 20:20a). Also, “This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works” (2 Chronicles 32:30). In Bible commentary particular notice is taken of the aqueduct as amongst the greatest of Hezekiah’s works. “In exploring the subterranean channel conveying the water from Virgin’s Forest to Siloam, I discovered a similar channel entering from the north, a few yards from its commencement; and on tracing it up near the Mugrabin Gate… I there found it turned to the west, in the direction of the south end of the cleft, or saddle of Zion; and if this channel was not constructed for the purpose of conveying the waters of Hezekiah’s aqueduct, I am unable to suggest any purpose to which it could have been applied. Perhaps the reason why it was not brought down on the Zion side was that Zion was already well watered in its lower portion by the Great Pool, the lower pool of Gihon.” The construction of this aqueduct required not only masonry but engineering skill, for the passage was bored through a continuous mass of rock. Hezekiah’s pool or reservoir, made to receive the water within the northwest part of the city, still exists.

From the above we may make two obvious reflections: 1) The necessity of water for the health of cities; 2) The mercy of God not only in providing so plentifully that essential element but also in giving knowledge and skill to men to overcome natural difficulties to supply the need. We draw our water, we fill our baths morning by morning, and perhaps seldom thank the beneficent Giver, or think of the engineering skill which has brought it into our houses through mountains, hills, and valleys. The cities of Liverpool and Manchester are largely supplied with water from Welsh rivers and lakes, many miles distant. Even where there is plenty, we should not waste water.

A word in conclusion

Is water so necessary to our existence, to the well-being of our villages, towns, and cities—so necessary that millions are spent to provide us with it? Is God so good to us as to provide sufficient for all? Then, how necessary for the eternal good of men is the river of the water of life! How amazing is the provision—the very Son of God in our nature, full of grace and truth. What wisdom is manifested in bringing this rich provision to a sinner, even the Holy Ghost, who gives life, hunger, thirst to all in whom He is “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14b). A famine of water may come, has often come, to a land; see the famines told of in the Bible, but to souls thirsting for the river of water of life, no famine will come. There may not always be the plentiful supply the soul desires, but the river of God is full of water. God give us thirst for it, and then quench our thirst by it.

Your affectionate friend,

J.K. Popham, Brighton, August, 1925

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