"For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Yet the Galilreans, like our Lord nnd his disciples, may hnve been less influenced by the policy of isolation than the people of Judroa, for while Jesus asked a drink from a Samaritan, his disciples went t<> n. Snmnntan city to buy meat. 3, Mark the perpetuity nf religious hatred. It dated from the ago of the Cnptivity. It still exists to separate Samaritans both from Jews nod from Christians. III. OUR Lono's OFFER OF THE BEST GIFT TO THE SAMARTTAN' WOMAN. " If thou knewest the gift of Gorl, nnd who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have aslrnd of him, and he would have givea thee livingw:1ter." 1. The gift of God is the living water, as he who speaks to her is the Agent of impartin'; it to the sonl of man. (1) The living water is eternal life (vers. 13, 14). (2) It is a~apted to satisfy t be thirst of the human soul for fellowship with God. (3) It is ever fresh, as it springs from an 1mfailing source (Gen. xxvi. 19). 2. Mark how it is to be obtained. " Thou wouldest have asked of him." It is by prayer-the prayer of faith. Some say that we nre not to pray for salvation, but simply to believe in order to salvation. (1) But our Lord here sanctions prayer for it, and Peter enjoins it upon Simon Magus: "Pray God, H perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." (2) It is the duty of an unconverted man to pray, as it is his duty to believe. His unbelief is co excuse for the neglect of this duty. Why otherwise is the neglect of prayer charged as a sin (Zeph. i. 6; Hos. vii. 7)? (3) If a sinner takes salvation before he prays, and does so because be bas not faith to pray, he is saved before he has faith. It is absurd, then, to coumel the sinner against praying because prayer implies faith, and yet to exhort him to take rnlvation which is impo~sible without faith. On such a principle a sinner can neither IJray nor believe. 3. Marlc the cause of the sinner not rereiving the gift of God. " If thou knewest the gift of God." Ignorance of the worth of Christ is the great cause of the gift not being appropriated. 'l'he Samaritan woman has so little idea of the import of our Lord's words that she thinks only of the water of Jacob's well, and therefore onr Lord has to set the truth in a new and striking light before her. !V. 'l'HE TRUE NATURE OF THE LIVING WATER THAT IS IN CHRIST'S DISPOSAL. 1. It satisfies more than mere momentary wants. The water of Jacob's well would satisfy a thirst that would recur again. This living water would fully satisfy the thirst of the immortal spirit, and fioally end the inward unrest. "Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." Earthly satisfactions leave an emptiness in the soul which need3 an ever-fresh supply from external sources. 2. The living water is (1) a well more inexhaustible than Ja.cob's well, for it is supplied by the fountain of God's grace. (2) It is a fountain leaping up in abounding plenty, so as to supply all the vast variety of human need. (3) It springs up to eternal life in its issue. "The fountain itself is Jesus glorified in the heart by the Holy Spirit."
Vere. 15-20.-.A. serious tum to the conversation. I. THE ARRESTED ATTITUDE OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN. "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither pass this way to draw." She is still ignorant of the meaning of his words, but she begins to have a dim apprehension of something behind them profoundly touching her life. We cannot otherwise understand the next phase of the conversation. IJ. OUR LORD LIFTS THE VEIL FROM HER PAST LIFE, AND THUS REVEALS HDISELF AB A PROPHET, AND MORE THAN A PROPHET. " Go, call thy husband." 1. He desires to link with her in the coming blessing the man whose life was then ttnworthily linked with her own. (1) He aims to purify family life. (2) He desires to make the regenerate family the nucleus of evangelistic effort. 2. Mark the sincerity of he,- answer. "I have no husband." It signifies that she was not wholly depraved, or that her heart had already begun to respond to the searching ordeal of Christ. There is sadness in -the confession. 3. The answer of Jes-us lays bare the secrets of her past life. "Thou hast well said, I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and be whom thou now bast is not thy husband." (1) She had probably lost her five husbands, not by death, but by her personal misconduot, as may be inferred from the circumstances of her present relation ; for the Samaritans, unlike thg Jews, allowed divorce for no other cause thnn adultery. (2) The conduct of Christ in this case suggests that (ct) private sins are to be rebuked privately; (b) without p~ssion or 184 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN. [dH. IV. 1-54,
i;everity; (c) and with a particular a.pplication of the Word to the conscience of the transgressor. Ill. THE SINGULAR TURN WHIClll THE WOMAN GIVES TO THE OONVERBATION, "Sir, J perceive that thou art a Prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and yo say, that in Jerusalem is the plaoe where men ought to worship." 1. The words may have been spoken to parry the stroke at her conscience, though she implicitly confesses her i;in, and does not attempt to deny or excuse it. 2. Yet her discovery of a pl'ophet, who knows the depths of her soul, suggests the religiom question that seems to have afready occupied her mind (ver. 25), and especially the question respecting the true worship of the Lord. 3. She submits to our Lord the antagoni.,m between Samaritan tradition and Jewish practice. (1) Gerizim, which was the centre of Samaritan worship, dated its sacredness from the time of Nehemiah. Though it had an earlier history, it was dear to the Samaritans as the site of their worship for at least five hundred years. (2) She is fully aware of the exclusive claims of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem. (3) Sha looks to the Prophet, who has disclosed her inner life, to determine the rival claims of Oerizim and Jerusalem.