_BY JACOB'S WELL_
JOHN iv. 1-15.
A weary woman and a weary Lord! But the Lord was only weary in body; the
woman was dry and exhausted in soul. Her heart was like some charred
chamber after a destructive fire. All its furniture was injured, and some
of it was almost burnt away. For sin had been blazing in the secret place,
and had scorched the delicacies of the spirit, and the inward satisfaction
was gone. And now she was very weary, and her daily walk had become a most
tiresome march.
And the Lord, with sympathetic insight, discerned the inward dryness.
There was no sound of holy contentment, no melody of joyful, spiritual
desire. There was only the cold, clammy silence of death. "He knew what
was in man." And there was no "river of water of life" making glad the
streets of this woman's soul.
And so He would bring to her the waters of spiritual satisfaction, the
holy well of eternal life. "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and
springs in the desert." The Lord is about to work a miracle of grace,
changing dull pang into healing peace, and suffocated desire into soaring
fellowship with God. He is about to transform an outlawed woman into one
of the "elect saints." How will He do it? Let us watch Him.