ger throws aside his pick in despair at
the very point where another stroke would have turned up the ore. So
with some among ourselves; they pass through life alongside of that
which would make all eternity different to them, and yet for lack of
knowledge, for lack of consideration, the thin veil continues to hide
from them their true blessedness. Like the crew that were perishing from
thirst, though surrounded by the fresh waters of the River Amazon that
penetrated far into the salt ocean, so we, surrounded on all hands by
God and upheld by Him, and living in Him, yet do not know it, and
refrain from dipping our buckets and drawing out of His life-giving
fulness. How often, looking on those who, like this Samaritan woman,
have gone wrong and know no recovery, who go through their daily duties
sad and heavy at heart and weary of sin--how often do these words rise
to our lips, "If only thou knewest." How often does one long to be able
to shed a sudden and universal light into the minds of men that would
reveal to them the goodness, the power, the all-conquering love of God.
Yes, and even in those who can speak intelligently of things Divine and
eternal, how much blindness remains. For the knowledge of words is one
thing, the knowledge of things, of realities, is another. And many who
can speak of God's love have never yet seen what that means for
themselves. Certainly it is true of us all, that if we are not deriving
from Christ what we recognise as living water, it is because there is a
defect in our knowledge, because we do not know the gift of God.

In two particulars this woman's knowledge was defective: she did not
know the gift of God, nor who it was that spoke to her.

She did not know the gift of God. She was not expecting anything from
that quarter. Her expectations were limited by her earthly condition and
her physical wants. With affections worn out, with character gone, with
no purifying joy, she came out listlessly day by day, filled her
pitcher, and went her weary way. She had no thought of God's gift, no
belief that the Eternal was with her, and desired to communicate to her
a spring of deep and ever-flowing joy. Doubtless she would have
acknowledged God as the Giver of all good; but she had no idea of the
completeness of His giving, of the freeness of His love, of His
perception and understanding of our actual wants, of the joy with which
He provides for them all. Through all ages and for all men there re