far off and dim,
His presence close, the bright ones near,
Thyself alone with Him."

That is what makes a man strong under the tests of life. He is not a
parasitic plant deriving its life from some other life; he is rooted
deep in the soil of the Eternal. As was said of John Henry Newman,
such a man is never less alone than when alone. "He is not alone,
because the Father is with him."

{182}

LXXIII

IF THOU KNEWEST THE GIFT OF GOD

_John_ iv. 10.

We usually notice in this story the great words of Jesus--perhaps the
deepest and richest series of utterances that have ever fallen from
human lips. Yet it is almost as striking to notice the attitude of
mind in which the woman remained throughout these wonderful scenes.
She seems to have been entirely oblivious of the situation, and unaware
that anything great was going on.

Jesus speaks to her of the living water, and she thinks it must be some
device which shall save her coming with her pitcher to the well. Then
Jesus looks on her with infinite pathos and says: "If you only knew the
gift of God, and who it is that is now speaking to you!" But she does
not know, and shoulders her pitcher and trudges home again, reporting
only that she has seen some one who appeared a wonderful
fortune-teller, and never dreaming that the greatest words of human
history had been spoken to her, and her alone.

{183}

If thou knewest the gift of God!--to have had one's opportunity in
one's hands and to have let it slip; to have had the Messiah sitting by
you and not to have recognized Him; to have thought it just a
commonplace day when the most sacred revelations of God were
occurring,--that is about the saddest confession that any one can make.
And yet, that is what might happen to any one any day. No one can be
sure when the great exigencies of life are likely to occur. He looks
forward to great things to be done in some more favoring future, and,
behold, the insignificant incidents of to-day are the greater things
which he does not discern. He looks forward to the discovery of God in
some difficult intellectual achievement, and meantime the daily task is
full of revelation, and as he wakes to the morning the new day stands
by him and says: "If you only knew the gift of God, and who it is that
speaks to you today." And at last perhaps he begins to realize that
the ordinary ways of daily life are the channels of God's revelation,
and then there

"Comes t