till the woman is converted. Then the froman goes away to the city and tells the men what has happened, and they all come out to the well to see Jesus. Yet by this time, in all reasonable pro- bability, it would be quite dark, and the night would have begun. And yet, after all this, our Lord says to the disciples, " Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields." (iv. 35.)
This last reason weighs very heavily in my mind, :ii forming a conclusion on the subject. Oar Lord appears to me t) have reached a resting-place for the mid(ile of the day, according to the Eastern custom in travelUng, and to have intended staying by the well for a short time, till the heat of the day was past. The arrival of the Samaritan woman at this hour of the day gave ample time for the conversation, for her rapid return to the city, and for the coming of the inhabitants to the well.
I must say that I see a peculiar beauty and fitness in the men- tion of the sixth hour, if it means twelve o'clock, which I should not see so strongly if it meant six in the evening. To my eyes there is a special seemliness and propriety in the fact that our Lord held His conversation with such a person as this Samaritan woman at noon day. When He talked to Nicodemus, in the preceding chapter, we are told that it was at night. But when He talked to a woman of impure life, we are carefully told that it was twelve o'clock in the day. I see in this fact a beautiful carefulness to avoid even the appearance of evil, which I should entirely miss if the sixth hour meant six o'clock in the evening. I see even more than this. I see a lesson to all ministers and teachers of the Gospel about the right mode of carrying on the work of trying to do goo-d to souls like that of the Samaritan woman. Like their Master, they must be careful about times and hours, and specially if they work alone. If a man will try to do good to a person like the Samaritan woman, alone and without witnesses, let him take heed that he walks in his Mas- ter's footsteps, both as to the time of his proceedings as well as to the message he delivers. — I believe there was a deep mean- ing in the little sentence, " it was about the sixth hour."
Augustine thinks that "the sixth hour" here was meant to represent, allegorically, the sixth age of the world. He says that the first hour was from Adam to Noah, the second from Noah to Abraham, the third. from Abraham to David, the fcurth from David to the Babylonian captivity, the fifth fronr. the cap- tivity to the baptism of John, and the sixth the time of the Lord Jesus. I can see no foundation lor these things in the text. If such interpretations of Scripture are correct, it is easy to make the Bible mean anything
201
JOKN" lY. 7—26.
T There ccmeth a woman of Sa- maria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Sa- maria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria ? for the Jews have no deaUngs with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said un- to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee. Give me to drink ; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him. Sir, thou hast notliing to draw with, and the well is deep : from whence then hast thou that Hving water ?
12 Art thou greater than our fa- ther Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and Ms cattle ?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again ;
14 But 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 hfe.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her. Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
IT Tlie woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, 1 have no husband :
18 For thou hast had five hus- bands ; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her. Woman, beheve me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what . we know what we worship ; for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is 8l Spirit : and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ : when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am Jie.
The history of the Samaritau woman, contained in these verses, is one of the most interesting and instructive pas- eages in St. John's Gospel. St John has shown us, in the case of Nicodemus, how our Lord dealt with a self-right- eous formalist. He now shows us how our Lord dealt with an ignorant, carnal-minded woman, whose moral character was more than ordinarily bad. There are les-
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