The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1905-02-02

Jesus was Uran1errlng the scene OF
his ministerv from Judea to Gallilee;
but while in transit he quietly placed
the leaven of His gospel in the very
heart of populous Samaria. He had
spent eight months of the first years
of His public life in and around Jeru-
salem, but the approach of winter,
and that worse winter of Pharisaical
hostility, babe Him find more con-
genial locality. He ignored the pref
udice of the Jews, and gave His dis
ciples an object-lesson by going
through Samaria. After four
days journey, at midday, Jesus,
wearied, sat thus upon the we'll
"'Thus, not upon throne, or chair,
or cushion" but as a wayfaring man
would, upon the ground, his side
against the stone parapet of the WELL
His arm upon its top, and His head
supported by his hand. See in this
the reality of our Savior's human ma
ture. a woman approaches.
She comes, perhaps, at this unusual
hour because her character made it
impossible for her to come at the
seasons when the pure maids and
matrons of Sychar visited the well.
She lowers her large earthen vessel
by cord which she has brought for
the purpose, hundred feet to the
cool, crystal water. Just as she lifts
the dripping jar to her head the dusty
Traveller asks a drink. Jesus put
Himself under obligation to her at
the very start by His request. He
took her good will for granted. A
compliment was implied. I'VE de-
spise not him whose service we ask"
What magic in kindness. This
obtuse and sinful woman. used only
to epithet and blow-gentle polite
ness transmute her into docile pupil.
She recognizes the nationality of the
Stranger. Countenance, accent, and
garb betrayed Him. A Jew-but
where is the racial prejudice? She
vaguely recognizes the moral super
iority of the person before her, and is
prepared for the step in advance, to
which Jesus leads her in His next re-
mark. Poetry is, in large
measure, the association of superior
ideas with common objects. If that
be so, Jesus was an ideal poet. He
takes the commonesJ of objects, water.
and the commonest of experiences.
the quenching of thirst with this nat
ural fluid, to portray the most I'M
common experience of the human
soul. The woman sees the enigma.
She is set a-wondering, and that, for
he, was a great gain: for wonder
Droyokes progress" While
she still loosely holds to the literal,
and talks of the depth of the we'll and
the lack of drawing appliances, she
yet skirts the edge of the Savior's spir-
itual meaning, and knows in her
heart that He who talks with her is
greater than the patriarch (whom
she claimed as progenitor) who be-
slowed upon his descendants the
great boon of this excellent well.
Jesus let's in a new ray of
light upon a mind from which the
mists have already begun to lift when
He contrasts natures water with the
living water. Water for only the
briefest possible period slakes thirst.
The path to the fountain is we'll trod-
den, but the grief of God is the trans
planting of a perennial fountain into
the very soul-a fountain whose tall
Jet penetrates even to the immortal
life above. The poor Sama1i-
tan hereto and outcast is enamored
of this gift" so wondrously describ-
ed. She asks for it, but in terms
which reveal the fact that the husks
of liberalism have not all been strip
ped off. The heaviest duty of her life
is this frequent two-mile journey
from city to well and back; the labor
ious drawing with the crudest posi-
BILE appliances; the carrying of the
heavy jar upon the head. If the gift
of God will set her free from all this
toll, and yet keep her from thirst. of
course she wants it. At the same
time she has drawing co9sciousness
that the gift means more than this.
Like a skillful surgeon.
kind but firm, Jesus inserts the gleam-
ing lancet of His question. The
hideous incidents of an adulterous
career. are laid bare in moment. The
woman is in the presence of Omnis-
cience. The exact and minute details
of her unsayory life are noted. Yet
such mercy and gentleness is irresisti-
BILE. The thing is done, not in such
a manner as to make her cry, Hast
thou found me out, o mine enemy?n
but rather, "Sir, perceive Thou art
a Prophet" A scared con-
science is softened, confession is made
and tears of penitence flow. She rises
now easily to the high spiritual plane
of the Savior's teaching. She knows