August 31

Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well.—John 3:14.

How indefatigable was Jesus in carrying on his great mission, in effecting his momentous work.

He did not consult his own comfort or ease, but day after day, he travelled on foot from place to place, glorifying his Father, and blessing the bodies and souls of men. Being fatigued, and weary, and thirsty, on one of these occasions, he came to Jacob's well, and sat thereon. While there, a Samaritan woman came for water; Jesus therefore sought that she would give him to drink. The request surprised the woman, inasmuch as Jews manifested the greatest possible hostility towards Samaritans, and refused all intercourse with them. Jesus therefore seized the occasion, and spoke to the woman of the waters of life, assuring her, if she had but known the gift of God, and who it was that had asked water of her, that she would have been a petitioner in turn, and that he would freely have imparted to her of the water of life. Jesus continued to expatiate on the preciousness of this water, and said, "whoever drank of it should never thirst, but that it should be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life." She then exclaimed "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw." Thus it was obvious that she understood not Christ, nor the water of which he spake. Jesus then began to converse with the heart of this woman, making all its dark imagery to pass before her eyes. He tells her to call her husband, when it is elicited, that she was living in a state of unhallowed intercourse with one, who was not husband to her. He then discourses to her respecting acceptable wor-

2 D ship, and in reference to the dispute, whether God ought to be worshipped at Jerusalem, or on the mountain of Samaria, he instructs her that the time had now come, when the Father might be worshipped anywhere, if worshipped in spirit and in truth. How interesting and cheering this truth, that God is not confined to temples made with hands, but that in the retirement of the closet, at the family altar, in the sick chamber, or even in the solitary desert, or on the wide expanse of the ocean's waters, God will be present to hear, assist, and bless, if we worship him in spirit and in truth.