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I. THE TWOFOLD BASIS OF ALL RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

1. The evidence of faith illustrated in the message of the woman, which elicited an unhesitating assent to the trustworthiness of the tale.

2. The evidence of sight obtained by personal converse. Of these two the first alone remains; but it is well to remember that the faith of many was kindled not by the irresistible testimony, but by that which we deem the less satisfactory.

II. MEN CRAVE FOR THE FAITH WHICH COMES THROUGH SIGHT, like Thomas, forgetting Christ's benediction on those who have not seen and have believed. That higher blessedness is ours.

III. THE SUPERIOR EFFICACY OF PREACHING TO MIRACLE. In Judaea Christ did many miracles, yet no man received His testimony. Here He did no miracles, He simply spoke the living word, and multitudes believed. It was the same at Pentecost; and now while the temporary and miraculous agency has ceased the truly efficacious still remains. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets," etc.

IV. THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST'S WORDS LEADS TO THE WELCOME OF CHRIST'S PERSON (ver. 40). It was a blessed and transient visit. Those who forfeited the opportunity of the hearing Him forfeited it for ever. There are tarry days of Christ in the soul; when sickness, bereavement, trial brings Him within the Shechem gates. Have we made the most of the season?

V. THE TESTIMONY OF FAITH CONFIRMED BY EXPERIENCE. This inward, subjective evidence is more convincing than that of the schools. It is the soul testing the remedies of the Great Physician.

VI. THE FUTURE OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AND CHURCH. Cornelius a Lapide tells us that the woman's name was , that she journeyed to Carthage, proclaiming in that vast city salvation through Christ; and that after an honoured martyrdom her head was conveyed to Rome, Where it is still preserved as a holy relic in the Basilica of St. Paul's: moreover, that the 20th of March, the day of her death, is still held in reverence in the Roman martyrology. As for the Church (see Acts 8:14-25; Acts 9:31), founded under circumstances of such interest.by this wayside fountain, it was not suffered to languish or decay. A Christian bishop, Germanus, has his name appended among the subscriptions to the councils of Ancyra and Nice, and so late as the middle of the fifth century his successor signs in the Synod of Jerusalem. Alas, however, subsequently to this, the old intolerance and hatred of the Samaritan towards the Jew was transferred to the Christian. During the reign of the Emperor Zeno savage atrocities were perpetrated by fire and sword. The Church at Shechem, now called Neapolis, was invaded during the celebration of the Holy Eucharist; the consecrated emblems, torn from the bishop's hands, were subjected to shameful indignity, and he himself frightfully wounded in his effort to prevent the sacrilege. The emperor espousing the cause of the injured, drove the aggressors from their sacred mountain, and a church in honour of the Virgin Mary crowned the heights of Gerizim. Under the succeeding reign of , the turbulent Samaritan tribes made an ineffectual attempt to recover their lost sanctuary. They destroyed by fire five Christian temples within Neapolis, subjecting many to torture and death; but they were overpowered by the Roman troops. The brick walls which surrounded the Church on Gerizim were further strengthened; and, indeed, it is conjectured that it is a portion of this second wall or outer fortress, whose ruins survive at the present day. Shechem once more emerges from obscurity in the time of the . An appanage to the Latin bishopric of Samaria, its revenues reverted to the abbot and canons of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But unable to escape being involved in these fierce wars, it was sacked and plundered twice by the infuriated army of Saladin, and after a varied alternation of fortune, it finally fell into the hands of the Mohammedans, where it continues at this day.

(J. R. Macduff, D. D.)

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KJV: Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

WEB: Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.