draught she had
in mind would be to give her immunity from one bodily need, and save her
the labor of coming to draw from the well.

The subject of the conversation was abruptly changed by Jesus bidding
her to go, call her husband, and return. To her reply that she had no
husband Jesus revealed to her His superhuman powers of discernment, by
telling her she had spoken truthfully, inasmuch as she had had five
husbands, while the man with whom she was then living was not her
husband. Surely no ordinary being could have so read the unpleasing
story of her life; she impulsively confessed her conviction, saying:
"Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." She desired to turn the
conversation, and, pointing to Mount Gerizim, upon which the
sacrilegious priest Manasseh had erected a Samaritan temple, she
remarked with little pertinence to what had been said before: "Our
fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship." Jesus replied in yet deeper vein,
telling her that the time was near when neither that mountain nor
Jerusalem would be preeminently a place of worship; and He clearly
rebuked her presumption that the traditional belief of the Samaritans
was equally good with that of the Jews; for, said He: "Ye worship ye
know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews."
Changed and corrupted as the Jewish religion had become, it was better
than that of her people; for the Jews did accept the prophets, and
through Judah the Messiah had come. But, as Jesus expounded the matter
to her, the place of worship was of lesser importance than the spirit of
the worshiper. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth."

Unable or unwilling to understand Christ's meaning, the woman sought to
terminate the lesson by a remark that probably was to her but casual: "I
know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he
will tell us all things." Then, to her profound amazement, Jesus
rejoined with the awe-inspiring declaration: "I that speak unto thee am
he." The language was unequivocal, the assertion one that required no
elucidation. The woman must regard Him thereafter as either an imposter
or the Messiah. She left her pitcher at the well, and hastening to the
town told of her experience, saying: "Come, see a man, which told me all
things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"

Near the conclusion of the