John 4:7 The story of the woman of Samaria is the history of one whom Christ found a bitter ignorant sinner, and left a large-hearted, devoted missionary. It is the experience of a soul which Christ took in hand and treated by Himself. It was just the centre of the day's heat, when there came a wom... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:15 It is evident that Christ's method with the Samaritan was first to awaken an interest, a desire, a consciousness at first vague, but growing clearer and clearer that there was a condition beyond her which, whether she had known it before or not, she really required to make her happy, and... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:16 We little know what our own prayers involve. Should we pray them if we did? Here, too, the veil is drawn in mercy before the future. You ask for the waters of joy, and you have them; but the first drops of the waters of joy are the tears of penitence. The woman wished to drink of Christ's... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:19 God is Spirit; worship in spirit I. Christ lived in another region than that of religious quarrel. To Him, both Judaism and Samaritanism were worn-out forms of truth, and He came to put them both aside and to lead men into a new world. But had He been like some of our modern prophets, who... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:21 The Ideal of Christian Worship I. In considering the ideal of Christian worship, look at the very evident symbolism of the Tabernacle and the Temple. There was the outer court for the general congregation. Here the sacrifice was actually offered. But it was in the Holy Place, within the... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:23 The Spirituality of Worship I. What is it to worship God in spirit and in truth? And why did the Father seek such to worship Him? In order to answer this question satisfactorily we must consider the nature of God, for in a subsequent verse our Lord describes this nature, and grounds on Hi... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:24 The Worship of God, the Personal Spirit It is when we get into the midst of practical life, out of abstractions of thought, that we realize our need of a heavenly Father, that we turn to Christ as the revealer of that Divine and blessed truth. And of how we are led to do that I shall ill... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:25 Christ our Prophet. Christ came in one portion of His threefold office to be a teacher and a speaker forth to us of the will of God. As, on the one hand, those are deeply in error who limit His office to this portion of it, and omit to dwell on His High-priesthood and His Kingship, so on... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:26 I. The woman at the well, feeling about for light, was led to her own Scriptures, and in those Scriptures to a prophecy a prophecy of a great Teacher who was to come the Messias. The coming Teacher, she knew, would solve all her difficulties, and make her way quite clear. It is very beauti... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:48 Faith without Demonstration. (Trinity Sunday.) A few words will make it evident that men are unreasonable and inconsistent in refusing to believe the creed before they see the Scripture proof. I. I would ask, in the first place, whether we reason and prove, before we act, in the affairs... [ Continue Reading ]
John 4:50 Taking God at His word When I say that we ought to take God at His word, I assert the most evident of truths, and I appear to be laying down the easiest of rules. But practically, I believe, none is harder; certainly there is no rule so little kept. I. Between man and man the social law... [ Continue Reading ]