the five husbands five different dispensations, and him with whom she now lived the Mosaic Law I This seems to me simply- absurd. Origen says much the same. It is well to know what patristic interpretation is I
[He luhom... hast. .not thy husband.'] These words show plainly that the Samaritan woman was living in adultery up to the very day when our Lord spoke to her.
Our Lord's perfect knowledge of the woman's past and present life is very noteworthy. It ought ti remind us how perfectly He is acquainted with every transaction of our own lives. From Him no secrets are hid.
[In that saidst thou truly.] There is a kindness very worthy of notice in these words. Wicked and abandoned as this Sama- ritan woman was, our Lord deals gently and kindly with her, and twice in one breath commends her confession: " Thou hast well said. — In that thou saidst truly." Kindness of manner like this will always be found a mo-it important point in dealing Avith the ungodly. Scolding and sharp rebuke, however well-deserved, have a tendency to harden and shut up hearts, and to make people bolt their doors. Kindness, on the contrary, wins, softens, conciliates, and disarms prejudice. An unskilful soul-i)hysician would probably have ended his sentence by saying, " Thou art a wicked woman ; and if thou dost not repent, thou wilt be lost." All this would have been true no doubt. But how dif- ferent our Lord's grave and gentle remark, " Thou saidst truly I"
19. — [The ivoman saith...I perceive... prophet.] I think we see in this verse a great change in the Samaritan woman's mind. She evidently confesses the entire truth of what our Lord had just said, and turns to Him as an anxious inquirer about her soul. It is as though she said, "I perceive at last that thou art indeed no common person. Thou hast told me what thou couldst not have known, if thou wert not a prophet sent from God. Thou hast exposed sins which I cannot deny, and aroused spiritual concern which I would now fain have reheved. Now give me instruc- tion."
Let it be noted that the thing which first struck the Samaritan woman, and made her call Jesus '• a prophet," was the same that struck Nathanael, viz., our Lord's perfect knowledge. — To call our Lord " a prophet " at first sight may seem not much. But it must be remembe-ed tljat even after His resurrection, the two disciphs going to Emmaus, only described Jesus as a "prophet mighty in deed and word." (Luke xxiv. 19.) A clear know- ledge of the divine nature of Messiah seems to have been one of the points on which almost the whole Jewish nation was ignorant. Et en the learned Scribes could not explain how Mes-