JOHN IV. 27-42

And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman; yet no man said, What seekest thou? Or, Why talkest thou with her?

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did; is not this the Christ?

Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

In the mean while his disciples prayed him saying, Master eat.

But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat?

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

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.

And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathered fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.

And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth.

I sent you to reap that wheron ye bestowed no labour: other Melbourne, and ye are entered into their labours.

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

So when the Sameritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.

And many more believed because of his own word;

And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of they saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

SCARCELY had Jesus revealed his Messiahship to the woman, when his disciples, having finished their errand in the city, made their appearance at the well. They were surprised to find him talking with a woman, not because she was a Samaritan, but simply because she was a woman; for even among the Jews, it was said by their learned doctors that "a man should not salute a woman in a public place, not even his own wife," and that it was "better that the words of the law should be burned than delivered to women." So that here the Lord not only defied national antipathies, but also set at nought all prejudice of sex, and showed that he came into the world, among other things, for the elevation of woman to her true position as the companion and help-meet of her husband.

But though the disciples were surprised at coming upon their Master while he was thus engaged, such was their reverence for him, and such their absolute con.fidence in the rectitude of his character, that no one of them ventured to say to her, "What seekest thou? "or to him, "Why talkest thou with her?" Nor indeed did she feel inclined to tarry to be questioned by them. Her soul was full of the discovery which she had made, and she was eager to make others sharers in her joy. Therefore, leaving her pitcher by the well, for thus early had she found the infinite superiority of the living water to that which could be drawn from any earthly fountain, she went her way into the city, not to bring her husband, but to say to all the men she met, "Come see a man which told me all things that ever I did, can this be the Christ?"

Notice, as we pass along, the testimony which she bears to Jesus, "He told me all things that ever I did." This has been regarded by most of the commentators as the unconscious exaggeration of an excited woman. But I incline to the belief, that she was speaking simply the truth according to her experience. The Lord had set her entire life before her in a new light. His word had been "a discerner of the thoughts and intents" of her heart. It had looked her through and through. It had "searched her and known her thoughts, it had tried her and known her ways," and therefore she had been brought to belief in his declaration when he said: "I that speak unto thee, am the Messiah." The emphasis of her thought, therefore, is not on the magnitude of the revelation of her actions which he had made to her, but on the quality of it-for she had never seen herself as God saw her, until he had spoken to her.

But that is precisely what the Bible does to every reader who is awakened by its statements. That is precisely what the truth from the living lips of the preacher does for those who are apprehended by its force. It shows them to themselves. It holds the mirror up before them so exactly that they say within themselves, "somebody must have told him all about us; he could not have described us better, if he had been perfectly familiar with the most secret things of our histories," and in that state of heart they are the better prepared to receive the good news of salvation through Jesus, from his mouth. I do not regard the statement of the woman here therefore as exaggerated; for the words of the Lord to her had made her feel that an all-seeing eye was gazing into her; and just as, when a man is drowning, his whole lifetime seems to pass in review before him almost in a moment; so this experience brought up all her conduct to her memory, and set it fully in her view in the white light of the thrice Holy Jehovah.

But mark, again, the wisdom of her question, "6 Can this be the Christ?" There is a delicate meaning in the original here, which can hardly be reproduced in any translation. The interrogative particle which is used is that which stimulates to enquiry, but rather seems to expect a negative answer, and its force is something like this: "It is not possible, surely, that this is the Christ?" or, "This surely cannot be the Christ?" or, as it is in the Revised Version, "Can this be the Christ?" She for her part is absolutely sure that he is the Messiah; but she will not overstate the case, neither will she claim credit on the ground of her possession of a character which notoriously did not belong to her. But putting her own history in the foreground, and giving as the evidence of that which she suggested, the fact of the stranger's acquaintance with it, she rather insinuates than alleges that after all he .;nay be the Christ, and invites them to come with her and see for themselves.

Thus she takes her place alongside of Philip who, when Nathanael asked, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" replied, "Come and see"; nay beside the Lord himself, who when John and Andrew said: "Rabbi, where dwellest thou," made answer, "Come and see." The gospel has nothing to conceal. It courts investigation. It submits itself to the test of experiment. It fears nothing from the most searching scrutiny. Whether inquiry be made as to the genuineness and authenticity of its documents; or the character of its Lord; or the validity of his claims, to be received as the God-man; or the efficacy of his death as an atonement for sin; or the reality of his resurrection from the grave and his ascension into glory; or the influence of his cross on the individual man, or on nations at large - its reply always is, "Come and see," and they who accept that invitation in a spirit of candor, are soon convinced, as these Samaritans were, that he is "the Saviour of the world."

It was a strange thing to see a woman, and such a woman, so interested in, and roused to enthusiasm concerning one who, according to her own showing, had let her see how wicked she had been - and we do not wonder that the curiosity of her townsmen was awakened, so that they flocked out in numbers to behold the stranger of whom she spoke.

But while she had been on her mission of gladness, and those to whom she addressed herself were hastening from Sychar to the well, an interesting and suggestive course of thought had been conversationally put before the minds of the disciples by their Master. Remembering how exhausted he had been when they left him, they eagerly presented food to him on their return, saying: "Master, eat." But in the joy which he had experienced in leading the woman up to the saving knowledge of himself, he had forgotten his hunger and fatigue. Indeed, for the time being, such is the power of the soul over the body, they had both disappeared. He had already had repast. The joy of his labor had been to him as food, and he replied: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of."

On a lower level, all of us know something of the experience thus delineated. Even those who are not animated by the loftiest motives of the gospel, but filled only with the joys of earth, have often been so gladdened with the receipt of some joyful news, or so engrossed in some delightful study, or so excited by some magnificent discovery that weariness and hunger have been for the time forgotten. And they who have tasted the joy of which the Saviour was here speaking, and have been instrumental in the saving of a soul, can testify that in the absorption of themselves in that unwonted gladness, they have had such elevation of spirit that they have not been conscious either of the body or its wants.

But the disciples were puzzled by their Master's words. They were as much at a loss to understand him when he spoke of food of which they knew not, as the woman had been when he referred to "living water." Therefore in utter bewilderment they said one to another, "Hath any man brought him aught to eat?" or - for we have here the same interrogative particle as in the twenty.-ninth verse- "Can it be possible that any man has brought him something to eat?" But he put an end to their perplexity by explaining his meaning thus: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work, and I have had a rich repast on that since you left. My very occupation is my food. Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, and my food as the Saviour of men is to carry out my Father's will in every particular, and to finish the work which he has given me to do."

Marvellous words, especially when we remember that it was when he hung upon the cross, and bowed his head in death, that he said of that great work of his, "It is finished." Thus the labor whose completion involved the very death of the body was the support of his soul. In the consciousness of the divine approval; in the enjoyment of the divine fellowship; and in the assurance that ere long he should see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, he was upborne, through fatigue, and hunger, and persecution, yea through death itself. The joy that was thus set before him was his hidden food; and even at that time, in the conversion of that woman, and the results which immediately followed it, he had such a foretaste of that final felicity - such a taste of that heavenly meat, - that he was no longer exhausted or an hungered.

Such as it seems to me is the shade of thought which connects the saying of the Lord, about his food, with the remarkable words which follow, and which have so exercised the ingenuity of interpreters. The meaning of the verses (35-38) may perhaps be most simply given in the form of a paraphrase like this: "When the husbandman has sown his seed he is in the habit of saying, 'Now, after four months we shall have a harvest,' and these words have come to be proverbial in the land, so that when one is impatient of results he is reminded that four months must intervene between the sowing and the reaping. But such long delay is not essential in spiritual things. As you know I am the sower; it is mine pre-eminently to drop the good seed of the word. That is the work which has been given me to do, and the doing of which is my food. In that work I have been engaged while you were absent, and lo ! yonder, in the people of the city coming forth to meet me, there is a field whitening already to the harvest. In this case, therefore, I shall have both the joy of the sower and the gladness of the reaper. But it will not always happen that the sower and the reaper shall be identical. In the coming time in my church, I shall be recognized as the sower; and all others will be reapers whose peculiar joy will be that of gathering in the fruit of my labor."

"The reapers, as every one can see, will have a great reward which shall continue forever, seeing that the sheaves are composed of immortal souls; but the reward shall not be the reapers' alone. It shall be divided with them by me, the sower, since both have had to do with the securing of the harvest. And thus, though here also the proverb will hold good, `One soweth and another reapeth,' it will not be verified in the same disappointing fashion that it is so frequently on earth. Usually it means that the rewards of labor do not go to him who has deserved them, but are snatched away by some one else. In the spiritual harvest, however, that will not be the case, but all who have had anything whatever to do with the growth or production of the crop shall receive their due proportion of reward, so that they shall all rejoice together. In the nature of the case, you could not do my work. I have come to be the Sower, and to be the seed; for as the word I am both, and as the seed, I must die; therefore in sending you forth as apostles, I have given you a commission to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor. I have done the work heretofore, and will continue to do it until I finish it by my death; then ye shall enter upon my labors; but I shall have the reward equally with you - for I shall see of the fruit of my sacrifice, and in the end sower and reapers shall rejoice together."

Such, after much study of these verses, I take to be their meaning. Their pri.mary reference is to the circumstances by which they were suggested, and therefore their first application ought to be to the difference between the work of the Lord as that of the Sower; and the labor of the apostles as that of reapers; and to the fact that together they shall eternally rejoice in the results springing from their combined toil. " He that soweth," and "other men labored," are phrases which in the first instance and in a peculiar sense, describe the Lord Jesus himself; while the clause "ye are entered into their labors," clearly refers to the first apostles. Pre-eminently the Sower is the Son of man, and even the twelve whom he ordained were only reapers.

But relatively and subordinately it is also true, that, in the service of Christ, there are those whose special gift is that of sowing; and those whose peculiar labor is that of reaping; while there are others, who, like the Saviour himself in the instance before us, - which suggested the comparison - are both sowers and reapers, and have the gladness of both. When one sees the results of his labors he is both sower and reaper; but when one works earnestly in the proclamation of the truth and sees no result, while another coming after him almost immediately reaps the harvest of his toil, the proverbial saying is fulfilled, "One soweth and another reapeth." Yet the sower is not deprived of his reward, for, as one has admirably said here, "The blessed issue of the whole ingathering is no more the fruit of the last operation than of the first," and therefore "the joy of the great harvest-home will be the common joy of all who have taken any part in the work, from the first operation to the last. (Dr. David Brown, "Commentary," in loco.)

While this conversation - of which we may believe that only the highly condensed summary is here preserved - was going on between the Lord and his followers, the woman had been proclaiming her discovery to the men of her city, and that to such good purpose, the two kinds of results were produced; first, a certain number of the Sycharites believed in Jesus as the Messiah, simply on her testimony; and besought him to remain with then for a season, so that he abode there two days; and second, many more, after coming into contact with himself, and hearing his discourses, for it does not appear that he wrought any miracle among them, believed because of his own word, and said unto the woman: "Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." The words "the Christ" are omitted in the Revised version). And the force of the expression is strengthened thereby, for it brings into strong relief the universality of the reference of the work of the Lord as the Saviour of the world, and shows that the Samaritans were ready to receive at once that truth which had been proclaimed at first to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, but which had now become so great a stumbling-block to the Jews. The fact is one both for wonder and for warning. The salvation which sprung from the Jews, was first regarded by these Samaritans as for the world; and the Jews refusing so to regard it, forfeited its enjoyment, and were deprived of its blessings.

This is a history possessed of thrilling interest, and almost every incident in it might be turned by us to profitable, practical account; but out of a multitude of lessons that suggest themselves to me, I select only the following.

In the first place, let the zeal of this woman to tell others of the discovery she had made, stir us up to earnest effort for the diffusion of the gospel of Christ. Some will have it that she left her pitcher behind her as a pledge of her return; but I do not believe that she thought of her pitcher at all. She was so absorbed in what she had heard, that she could not but tell it to her townsmen. She felt that her joy was incomplete until she had shared it with others. And it is simi.lar with all who have found salvation in Jesus Christ. Even a heathen could say, "If knowledge were to be offered to me with this restriction, that I should keep it to myself, and not share it with others, I would reject it." There is thus in each soul an instinctive impulse, prompting it to publish that which has filled itself with joy, so that the command of the Lord runs parallel to, nay coincides with and strengthens our natural inclination when he says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature"; and, "Let him that heareth say, Come."

Every believer is to become in his own sphere a missionary of the cross; and if there be no enthusiasm in our hearts about the proclamation of the gospel or the conversion of sinners, we make it only too evident that we have not yet discovered what there is in it for ourselves. But if our spirits are stirred within us at the sight of the idolatry of our fellowmen; if our hearts prompt us so that - like Paul at Athens - we cannot keep from telling them of "Jesus and the resurrection," we make it manifest that we are the disciples of him who said, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work," and who commissioned his followers thus, "As my father hath sent me into the world, so have I sent you into the world," "As ye go, preach."

But some may ask, "How are we to preach?" And I answer, just as this woman did here. When we speak of preaching now, indeed, it is too often taken for granted, that we refer to the public proclamation of the gospel from a pulpit to a large audience. But that is a modern narrowing of the significance of the word. No doubt there is a noble sphere in the pulpit, and I would be the very last to depreciate it in any way - nay rather, "I magnify mine office," and believe it to be the highest which this earth offers to sanctified ambition. But New Testament preaching is not necessarily speaking to a multitude. It is the setting of the gospel before the mind of another - no matter where or how we find him. Philip "preached" Jesus to the Ethiopian treasurer as he rode with him in his chariot; and you may do the same, in a conversation which multitudes would term "casual," with a fellow passenger in the railroad car or on the deck of the steamship, or with some one who is brought into contact with you, in your summer retreat.

If all who are enrolled as members of our Christian churches, were only to recognize such opportunities and take advantage of them wisely for the diffusion of the gospel, how soon might the world be converted unto God? Do not lose the little sphere, by waiting for a greater; but begin where you are, asking the while that God would give to you the "word in season." In your holiday time many of you will be away from the city, in places where you may be thrown among strangers, some of whom are ignorant of Christ and his salvation. Why should you not seek somehow to benefit them? Only be wise about it, and take care that your conduct shall illustrate and not neutralize your words - then you too may share that joy of the reaper whereof the Master speaks so graphically here.

And to encourage you in this determination, see, here, in the second place, how much one earnest laborer can accomplish in the service of God. A whole city was awakened and blessed, through the eager, loving zeal of this woman. Often when we endeavor to enlist some new recruit for active work in the cause of the Lord Jesus, we are met with the response - "I have no influence, I can do nothing; go for some one else." Now it would be easy to expose the hollowness of this pretended humility; for if we should take these people at their word, and reply, "Yes, it is too true, you have no influence and you can do nothing; and I made a mistake in coming to you" - they would be excessively indignant. But tonight I meet it in another way. Look at this woman. Might not she have said, "I am only a woman, who will listen to me?" Or might she not have felt that the character of her past life had been such as ought to prevent her taking any prominent position? But instead of that she consulted not "with flesh and blood;" but let the promptings of her heart decide for her what was her duty in the case, and went forward to tell her townsmen about the man whom she believed to be the Christ.

And mark how successful she was. The men of her city went out in large numbers to hear for themselves, multitudes believed on her simple word; and the city as a whole was blessed. Let no one say, therefore, that he can do nothing. What is lacking is not influence, or a sphere in which to exert it, but simply the will to put forth your influence where your are to the uttermost for Christ and his cause. And surely in the constraining power of the love of Christ on the one hand, and in the urgent need of our suffering and perishing fellowmen upon the other, we have motives powerful enough to animate us to self-sacrifice and perseverance in this noble work. Rouse you then to earnestness in this good and gracious enterprise. Be earnest, be zealous, be faithful, in seeking thus to "serve your generation by the will of God." Resolve to make the world the better for your being in it. Remember that "'Twere infamy to die and not be missed"; while the heaven of one whom we have been the means of leading thither will double our own.

But let us learn, in the third place, that in the service of God there are different departments, but there is a common joy to all the servants, "One soweth and another reapeth"; but "he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together." No one man's labors now in any province are entirely independent of those of the men who have gone before him. Always we build in one form or another on a foundation which others have laid. Invariably we enter a field, which has been already sown by another; and therefore we cannot have all the reward or honor to ourselves.

You see that illustrated in science. Franklin laid the foundation on which Morse reared the telegraph; and Morse prepared the way for Bell and Edison with the telephone. Watt made it possible for George Stephenson to become the constructor of the locomotive; and in general we see, that the discoveries of one age, furnish the means for making the inventions of the next.

But it is quite similar in the history of the church. There were Reformers before the Reformation; and their work, though apparently unsuccessful, made the Reformation possible, when its time had come. If there had been no Wicliffe, there would have been no Huss or Jerome, and if there had been no Huss, there might have been no Luther. Hence the grandeur of this age, is due not merely to the men who live in it, but to the accumulated legacy of blessing bequeathed to us by those who have gone before us. We boast indeed of the enlightenment of this nineteenth century, but small thanks to us for that - we did not make it; we have inherited it for the most part, and it ought to be therefore to us far more a source of responsibility, than an occasion for pride; for we ought to see to it that we pass along that heritage to those who shall come after us not only unabridged by any unfaithfulness of ours, but rather increased by a new deposit of our own creation.

The same thing holds good in working for God in any one locality. The success of a man in the ministry is never entirely owing to his own work, and that which seems to be a failure in one, may only be the sowing of the seeds of what appears as a rapid and extraordinary ingathering in the history of him who follows. We often make very harsh and unjust judgments, because we forget that truth. Thus a faithful pastor labors for years in the earnest preaching of the gospel and sees little or no fruit; so that he is greatly depressed and passes away saying, "Lord, who hath believed our report." But his place is soon filled by another who has not long begun his labor before conversions come to gladden his heart. They multiply until men say, that he is having a revival, and forthwith the remark becomes current that "this might have come years ago, if their old pastor had only been like their new minister." But the real truth may be, that the successor is only reaping the harvest that has sprung from the sowing of his predecessor and that there would have been no such ingathering, if there had been no such previous labors.

Thus the remembrance of the truth on which I am now insisting serves to check undue elation over success on the one hand, and to preserve from undue depression from apparent failure on the other; while the statement of the fact that sower and reaper shall rejoice together is full of stimulus to us all. We are all alike servants of the one Master. Some he sets to sow, and others to reap; but he rewards them all, not for sowing as such, nor for reaping as such, but for loving service to himself; and whether we are gladdened with the evidences of our success or not, we shall have in heaven the same joy as those who have been so blessed here, provided always we have been faithful to our trust. The missionary traveller, whose adventurous and courageous explorations have opened up new territories to the enterprise of the churches - dies on his knees in a grass hut, without seeing any converts in the heart of the dark continent; but he has an interest in the Christian work prosecuted in all succeeding generations there, and will have a share in the eternal joy of these workers over their success.

"William Tyndale," as I have elsewhere said, "was the pioneer who prepared the way for the making of our present version of the Holy Scriptures. Yea, in the antique individuality of its style that translation is more his than that of any other single individual. So he has - shall I say? - a royalty of reward accruing to him for all the triumphs which the English Bible has won. When he died at the stake at Vilvorde, it might have seemed that he had been entirely unrequited; and the late honors which have been heaped upon his name, do not pass within the veil. But whither earthly trophies and memorials cannot enter, redeemed souls are continually going, and of these, all who have used the English Bible here below shall add new happiness to the great reformer's heaven." (See, "Limitations of Life, and other Sermons," p. 387.)

But the same will be true of every faithful one who works for God upon the earth, even though, at the time, he may see little fruit. "There are four months to the harvest," and these months may be longer in the calendar of grace than in that of nature. But a harvest there will be, even if it should be reaped by others. Therefore let us labor on at our sowing, even though we should be in tears, for we shall reap in joy; if not here, yet assuredly hereafter in that blessed land of which it is said,

"The Harvest-home they keep,
And the summer of life they share,
And they that sowed and they that reaped
Rejoice together there."

And now I conclude. This history is all true. It has been repeated over and over again in the experience of multitudes; and there are many now, I doubt not, who could endorse it from their own case. Jesus can give "living water." He is the source of true and abiding happiness. He satisfies the heart as bestowing pardon for its sin; purity for its pollution; light for its darkness; joy for its sorrow; life for its death. Some of us have met him, at earthly wells, where we were seeking that which no fountain of mere worldly pleasure could bestow. He has shown us there all things that ever we did, in such a way that we were utterly disgusted with them and heartily repented of them; and he has revealed himself to us so lovingly, that we were led at once to believe in him. Thereby we have obtained a joy the like of which we never before experienced. We know that he can give peace and happiness, for he has given them to us.

And to you who are seeking these things, we say, Come and see if this be not the Saviour you need. What he has done for us he will do for you. Come, come at once, come and try the experiment of his saving power, and then sure I am, after a time you will return to me and say: "Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world, for he who has saved us can save any man;" and when you say that to me, you will add the joy of the reaper to the happiness which I have so often had in the work of the sower.

~ end of Part III, Jesus At The Well ~