At noon on a hot June day a rather weary Christian Scientist entered a railway station in a foreign city to find that she had just missed a suburban train and must wait some time for another. There was not much to regret in that, but after a morning spent in an apparently fruitless effort to carry through a piece of business rendered difficult by an imperfect knowledge of the language and customs of the country, the delay seemed to intensify a feeling of loneliness and discouragement which had crept in; and as she seated herself to wait on the platform she realized that there was mental work to be done. And what was this gentle, refreshing sound of running water close at hand—the merest whisper, but very near? Who could have expected to find in such a place this delightful drinking fountain sending up, almost noiselessly, a tiny but constant stream of clear, sparkling water! Here, indeed, was loving consideration. How could one feel that conditions were unfriendly where provision was so graciously and considerately made for the weary traveler? Instantly thought turned with glad gratitude to another scene in a far-off land, a scene which many a student of the Scriptures must have pictured to himself.
The woman of Samaria, of whom we read in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel, who came to draw water from Jacob's well on that day when she found our great Master seated there, may have been an unhappy mortal, entertaining no anticipation beyond a continuance of hard and loveless toil. To sense, there may have been nothing in her lot which gave promise of release from a weary round of daily tasks. Yet here was one who spoke to her of living water "springing up into everlasting life," and who lifted her thought to Him whom he called the Father, the Father who must be worshiped "in spirit and in truth."
We know nothing of this woman's after life; but can we doubt that she was purified, dignified, and transformed by this meeting at the well, and by the teaching which, along with other Samaritans, she surely received during the two days that Jesus tarried in their city?
