interview between Jesus and the woman, the
returning disciples arrived with the provisions they had gone to
procure. They marveled at finding the Master in conversation with a
woman, and a Samaritan woman at that, yet none of them asked of Him an
explanation. His manner must have impressed them with the seriousness
and solemnity of the occasion. When they urged Him to eat He said: "I
have meat to eat that ye know not of." To them His words had no
significance beyond the literal sense, and they queried among themselves
as to whether some one had brought Him food during their absence; but He
enlightened them in this way: "My meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to finish his work."

A crowd of Samaritans appeared, coming from the city. Looking upon them
and upon the grain fields nearby, Jesus continued: "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." The import of the saying seems to be that while months would
elapse before the wheat and the barley were ready for the sickle, the
harvest of souls, exemplified by the approaching crowd, was even then
ready; and that from what He had sown the disciples might reap, to their
inestimable advantage, since they would have wages for their hire and
would gather the fruits of other labor than their own.

Many of the Samaritans believed on Christ, at first on the strength of
the woman's testimony, then because of their own conviction; and they
said to the woman at whose behest they had at first gone to meet Him:
"Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him
ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the
world." Graciously He acceded to their request to remain, and tarried
with them two days. It is beyond question that Jesus did not share in
the national prejudice of the Jews against the people of Samaria; an
honest soul was acceptable to Him come whence he may. Probably the seed
sown during this brief stay of our Lord among the despized people of
Samaria was that from which so rich a harvest was reaped by the apostles
in after years.[384]

JESUS AGAIN IN GALILEE: AT CANA AND NAZARETH.

Following the two days' sojourn among the Samaritans, Jesus, accompanied
by the disciples who had traveled with Him from Judea, resumed the
journey northward into Galilee, from which province He had been absent
several m