ances--as, for example,
the account of the staunching of the issue of blood when the woman
touched the hem of his garment. He was going upon another errand, but
was so filled with virtue that when one of the multitude at his side
touched him, by faith healing was the result. And, again, we have an
illustration in the raising of Jairus' daughter, and once again in the
rescue of the widow's son from death. He was on his journey across the
country and beheld the funeral procession coming. Mr. Moody used to
say that Jesus broke up every funeral he attended, and he stops long
enough in this journey to restore this boy to his broken-hearted
mother. Again, in the case of the woman of Samaria, when he is going
about his Father's business, he stops by the wellside to rest, and even
in his resting moments forgives a woman's sins, so that under her
influence an entire city is moved. Would that we could learn that it
is the overflow of our lives that gives power to our Christian
experience! This text is one of the best illustrations of this truth
in the life of our Savior.

I

Many lessons might be drawn from this scripture, the first of which
would be his power to uplift womanhood; but this is so well understood
that it is unnecessary to take a moment of time to discuss it, except
to say in passing that all that woman is today she owes to Jesus of
Nazareth. She was as truly bound as this afflicted woman, and just as
truly was she set free. But I prefer rather to let the woman of
Samaria illustrate many Christians to-day who are bound in one way or
another and so are shorn of power. For this suggestion I am indebted
to my dear friend, the Rev. F. B. Meyer, a brief outline of whose
sermon I recently had the privilege of reading.

She was a daughter of Abraham, as we read in verse 16, "And ought not
this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo,
these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"
And therefore she was like many children of God whom we know. What it
is that binds them we cannot always tell. With this person it is
fashion, and with that it is earnings; with another it is pride, and
still another selfishness; with this one it is the encouragement of
some passion, and with still another it is the practice of some secret
sin. It is not necessary to describe the bondage; it is true, alas,
that many of us are sadly crippled in our influence because of these
things, for