could at the utmost have only been a few minutes :) but pro- bably forgetting for the time her earthly business, through the ardour of her mind in the pursuit of heavenly knowledge. And thus it is that every awakened soul will act. It will desire knowledge : it will pursue it at the risk of all the obloquy which may attach to a desire after it : and it will postpone all earthly things, to the acquisition of it.]
2. A candour in our inquiries after it —
{Where the heart is unaffected, incredulity and scepticism usually take the lead ; and a greater degree of evidence than the subject well admits of, is required. But, where a person feels his guilt as a sinner, and his utter incapacity to save himself, he will feel a predisposition to receive the truth. He will not with sceptical indifference say, " Is this the Christ?" but, with a wish that his pretensions to that character may be found true, " Is not this the Christ?" It may be said, that here was an undue bias. But I deny that it was an undue bias. In a matter which is itself indifferent, we may be indif- ferent : but in a matter which concerns the glory of God and the salvation of the whole world, indifference would be highly criminal. The misery of man is seen, felt, acknowledged. Here purports to be a revelation from heaven, and a Saviour sent us by Almighty God for the redemption of man. This is not to be a matter of speculative inquiry. It should be ex- amined with a desire that it may be true. The precise state of mind which every person should experience, is that which was experienced by the man whose eyes the Lord Jesus Christ had opened. The Lord Jesus asked him, " Dost thou believe in the Son of God ?" The man answered, not coolly and in- differently, " Who is he?" but, with becoming anxiety, " Who is he, that I may believe on hime?" Though credulity is not good, neither, on the other hand, is incredulity: there is a just medium between the two, a readiness to believe on sufficient evidence. The readiness of the other Disciples to believe in Jesus was commended, whilst the incredulity of Thomas was blamed. And this shews us the precise state of mind which deep conviction generates ; a candour in our inquiries after truth, with an unfeigned desire to embrace it the very instant it is fairly laid before us with a weight of evidence sufficient to sustain it.]
3. A wish that others also may be partakers of it —
[It was not from a mere desire to ask their judgment that the Samaritan woman went into the city, but with a hope that her fellow-citizens might participate in the blessings which she
c John ix. 36.