St. Paul daily globe., 1894-09-17
The MATERIAL Trend,
DR.. Egbert breaches a Strong
Sermon on the Ten
dency
TO CONSTRUE PHYSICALLY
The Teachings Of Christ and
All Things in Human
knowledge.
% CoNSTRUE PHYSICALLY
THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA
Asked the Water of Eternal
Life to Save Going to
the Well.

gregation at House of Hope church yes
terday morning on Christ and the
Woman OF Samaria." He said in part:
Wearied with the twenty miles of
journey. Christ comes to the we'll of
Jacob. His disciples move off up that
Roman road which leads to the village
near by to get some provisions, and He
sits resting upon the well. While He is
there woman comes out from the vii
lage. He asks her to give him to drink.
The question rather surprises her. COM
ing from a Jew, as she is Samaritan.
You know their enmity. AS the Taimud
says, He that gives meat or wine to
Samaritan has no place in the syna-
gogue." "Why is it," she says, "lhat
thou, being Jew, askes me of drink,
Samaritan" How quickly Christ
turned the conversation to the search
after higher things. The setting is too
familiar tor us to dwell upon it.
There are three things that come to
US instantly as we begin the study Of
this lesson. The first is the ease with
which Christ found all opportunity to
teach spiritual things-the ease with
which He went from the physical thing
that they could touch and taste up to
the very highest truth Of which man
can conceive. even eternal life. What
was il? Tact? Skill? When a man
has one dominant desire, and that de-
sire has in its very heart all intense love
for another. you cam 0t put that person
in the presence of the other without
that dominant desire directing the
course of the thought. of the feeling, of
the Imagination, of the whole situation,
and, sooner or later, the conversation.
The one effort of the spirit is in behalf
of the other person. and hence the
speech must partake of its character.
The one longing of Christ was to get
down to the lowest of men and lift them
up. 1t was utterly impossible for Him
to he in the presence of any human being
long without that desire coming out in
speech and effort. Now, we may say
that it was because He was divine and
saw the need of all this. That is true;
but how many of us have seen the need
OF those right about us just as vividly
as we have ever felt any need of our
own, and yet neglected the speech and
the effort that would supply the need.
No. it was not merely the power of
knowledge; it was the desire OF might
that impelled him TO seek the salvation
of the highest life of this person with
whom he was talking.
And the second thing that Is suggested
to us is HIS utter Indifference to petty
national animosity. We sometimes
call it race prejudice, sometimes call it
love of our own denomination. Ii MAY
be that God would call it narrowness,
bigotry, littleness of soul. How utterly
Indifferent Christ was as to whether he
was Jtw or a Samaritan. Why was
that? Because he was the lsraelite of
ali Israeiites. He was whatever Jew
ought to have been. He was whatever
man ought to be. He was the Son of
man. He was above the petty. little
boundaries that divide man from man;
above the petty little prejud, ces
that comes in and color a mans think
ing,and color mans speech, and some.
times keep his hand from helpfulness
when the greatest need is before him.
And how quickly Christ's lack of
enmity disarmed the enn.i;y Of this
Samaritan woman. She was surprised
out OF it into free conversation that
led to an open confession of her life
and acknowledgment of Jesus as the
Messiah. And the other is the sug-
geStion of that habitual self-denial, self
remuneration which Christ manifested
all the way through His life. He is
hungry and thirsty after this long walk
and long abstinence from food
and drink; but how quickly He
renounces Himself, lays aside His
own desire; that can wait. Here is an
opportunity, before the disciples return,
before the food is placed, to enter right
into the life of that soul, and by enter
ing that life send message to other
| lives. That is characteristic of Christ.
/ 1t is habitual; it is the overflow of that
| spirit that was in Him of ministering.
1t Is the Christlike thing that runs
through the life of every true man and
! true woman the world Over-tbat i'm
pulse to do for others and to hold ones S
own desires in check. submission, and
make them even minister to others.
Jesus said to this woman: "If thou
| knewest who it is that is speaking thou
wouldSt ask OF him and he would give
thee living water" She thinks in.
| stantly of that well. She makes a phy
| sical Interpretation. And here there is
| beginning of revelation of her char
| acter. We say. with our eighteen hun.
| dred years of instruction, How could
| she help seeing some spiritual sugges-
tlon in this? Why, of course, He did
not mean that we'll" But she thought
the living steam at tho bottom of the
! well-a purely physical Interpretation.
| Are we any wiser? Her answer was a
revelation OF her ignorance, her obtuse-
ness, her carnal character. What about
our interpretations of divine sug-
gestlons? How many men there
are today who are in doubt about the
one supreme thing OF mans lite-his
character in the sight of God; who hes
itate before all these suggestions of
spiritual light that come to us in what
we call our religious life; who think
that the darkness is in the problem; !;
who think that the difficulty is in the
revelation; who think that the mystery
is in that which God has revealed, when
it is no more there than the DIFF
ficnlty was in the statement that
| Christ made to this woman of
old. The difficulty was in her,
her obtuseness, her stupidity.
Her conception could 90 no
higher than the physical Interpretation.
| And how many men there are who Il }
| not believe in heaven because they have
seen only earth; who do not believe in
the spiritual power of present Christ,
simply because they have never felt
| anything but physical power. And
yet heaven is magnet that draws all
souls which have any life in them to-
wards itself. Today there is no power
acting upon the spirits of men--aye,
there is 10 power acting upon the in
tellectual life OF men greater than that
which reveals to us that after this life
there is another life.
When Christ came and surprised the
enmlty out Of this woman and then
challenged her attention to these divine
things, He revealed her and He re-
yealed Himself. Then He said in q
further revelation of Himself and OF
her. whoever shall drink of this water
shall thirst again.::"It is physical; it will
go to the physical body. and no further.
But whatsoever drinketh of the water
that ! shall give shall never thirst
again." And again she makes the
physica! Interpretation, "Give it to me
that l may not have to come here to