out oUl tastes and interests. A converted person no longer cares for what he once cared for. A new tenant is in the house. A new pilot is at the helm. The whole world looks different. All things have become new. It was so with Matthew the publican. The moment that grace came into his heart he left the receipt of custom. (Matt. ix. 9.) — It was so with Peter, James, and John, and Andrew. As soon as they were converted they forsook their nets and fishing-boats. (Mark i. 19.) — It was so with Saul the Pharisee. As soon as he became a Christian he gave up all his brilliant prospects as a Jew, in order to preach the faith he had once despised. (Acts ix. 20.) — The conduct of the Samaritan woman was precisely of the same kind. For the time present the salvation she had found com- pletely filled her mind. That she never returned for her water-pot would be more than we have a right to say. But under the first impressions of new spiri- tual life, she went away and " left her water-pot " behind.
Conduct like that here described is doubtless uncom- mon in the present day. Rarely do we see a person s© entirely taken up with spiritual matters, that attention to this world's affairs is made a secondary matter, or post- poned. And why is it so ? Simply because true conver- sions to God are uncommon. Few really feel their sins, and flee to Christ by faith. Few really pass from death to life, and become new creatures. Yet these few are the real Christians of the world. These are the people whose religion, like the Samaritan woman's, tells on others. Happy are they who know something by expe- rience of this woman's feelings, and can say with Paul, *'I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ!" Happy are they who have given up everything for Christ's sake, or at any rate have altered the relative importance of all things in their
JOHN, CHAP. lY. 231
minds! "If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light." (Philipp. iii. 8 ; Matt. v. 22.)
We see, lastly, in this passage, how zealous a truly converted person is to do good to others. We are told that the Saraaritan woman " went into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did : is not this the Christ ?" In the day of her conversion she became a missionary. She felt so deeply the amazing benefit she had received from Christ, that she could not hold her peace about Him. Just as Andrew told his brother Peter about Jesus, and Philip told Nathanael that he had found Messiah, and Saul, when converted, straightway preached Christ, so, in the same w^ay, the Samaritan woman said, "Come and see Christ." She used no abstruse arguments. She attempted no deep reasoning about our Lord's claim to be the Messiah. She only said, " Come and see." Out of the abundance of her heart her mouth spoke.
That which the Samaritan woman here did, all true Christians ought to do likewise. The Church needs it. The state of the world demands it. Common sense points out that it is right. Every one who has received the grace of God, and tasted that Christ is gracious, ought to find words to testify of Christ to others. Where is our faith, if we believe that souls around us are perish- ing, and that Christ alone can save them, and yet hold our peace? Where is our charity if we can see others going down to hell, and yet say nothing to them about Christ and salvation? — We may well doubt our own love to Christ, if our hearts are never moved to speak of Him. We may well doubt the safety of our own souls, if we feel no concern about the souls of others.
What are we ourselves ? This is the question, after all, which demands our notice. Do we feel the supreme importance of spiritual things, and the comparativa