The scene at Jacob's well. I. THE WOMAN'S IGNORANCE. Knowledge is acquired by few. Ignorance is inherited by all. Man is ignorant of himself, of things around him, and of the laws which govern him. First: She was ignorant of the Messiah with whom she was conversing. She saw a Jew, but could not recognize in Him the Son of God. She saw a weary person resting, but not the rest in Him for all weary souls. She saw a person who felt very thirsty, but not the living water that could quench the thirst of the world. She saw a person that sent His followers to buy provisions, but she did not know that to do His Father's will, was His meat and drink. She saw a lonely person, but knew not that He was the Lord of glory, and had thousands of angels at His command. Secondly: She was ignorant of spiritual things. She mistook the living water which Christ spoke of, for fresh running water. She asks for things pertaining to this world, but asks not for spiritual blessings. The earth was all, and heaven nothing to her. Thirdly: She was ignorant of the gift of God. She was conscious of the privilege to have such a well in the neighbourhood; but she could not trace it back further than Jacob. It was Jacob, and not God, was the giver of it, in her sight. God gives us all good gifts. Some of them come down to us through the hands of our fathers; some of them must come through our own hands. All these pass away and perish. One gift He keeps in His own hand. If we receive it, it must come direct from heaven. The influence of the Holy Spirit, this living water ever springing up within us. Life eternal comes from God, and has the image of God on it. II. CHRIST'S INSTRUCTIONS. When the light of the sun is very bright, and the heat very intense, we have nothing to do but to turn our face away and study it as it is reflected by some object. So we shall do in this case. First Christ's instructions are progressive. The first impression upon her mind was, that He was a Jew. The second was more favourable. She wanted to compare Him with her father Jacob. The third was still brighter: a prophet sent by God. And the fourth, He was the promised Messiah. This progress must be attributed to Christ revealing Himself to her. Secondly: His instructions were effective. They had the desirable effect, in spite of her efforts to thwart them. He told her, "Bring thy husband here;" she answered, “I have no husband." But when she became conscious that He knew her past life, she suggested another question, in order to avoid the shame and disgrace which her history would unavoidably bring upon her. She asked about worshipping, whether in this mountain or in Jerusalem, etc.; and when that was decided against her, and in favour of her enemies, the Jews, in order to avoid such a conclusion, she said, "When the Messiah is come, He will tell us all things. His words we will believe.' "I am He," said Christ. In spite of her efforts to evade these things, she was led to the right conclusion. Thirdly: His instructions were practical. They created a spirit of inquiry in her bosom. He asked her for a drop of water, and told her at the same time about the living water, that she might ask Him the same question. He told her about her past conduct. She exclaimed, "Thou art a prophet, canst speak of the future." III. GOD'S BLESSING. Christ was so blessed that He forgot the water which He asked for while talking about the living water-did not want the provision for which He sent while doing His Father's will. This is the parting advice of a king to his son, whose right it was to grasp the sceptre as it fell from the pallid hand of his dying father. The words contain a twofold duty. I. "BE THOU STRONG." Not boastful or self-confident, but "strong." First: What is this strength? It does not consist in feelings of pleasure at seeing others doing good, or in desiring to do good ourselves. These feelings may exist where there is no strength. A man led captive by the devil at his will may have them. Christian strength puts a man at his post, and keeps him there; holds up in the day of severest conflict, when many are fainting and fleeing a round him; keeps him at work when the voice of the multitude rest awhile." 66 says, Tarry and Second: How is this strength obtained? From God alone, through our Lord Jesus Christ. How from Him? (a) Repent of all (8) Resolve to break The woman left the pitcher and water there, and ran back to tell her neighbours what sins. Let it not be a mere inference, but a palpable fact; a demonstration. "Show thyself. Men put a value upon us according to how we show ourselves. Be strong therefore, and show thyself to be a man. Don't leave it to others to show that you are a man; do it yourself. Not an angel, but a man. There is danger of some strong Christians failing to show themselves men. They live too much in the region of physical and mental solitude. Sociability is to them a trouble, an annoyance. They are not loved, and don't want to be. What a pity! There is no instrument God can use in so many ways and places, and with such wonderful success, as a devoted Christian who can show himself a man-a man who has the tear of sympathy for the sorrowing, a word of comfort for the bereaved, and a word of hope for the downcast and desponding. Such a man in the ministry, or out of it, is a polished shaft in the hand of the Almighty. He will find a road to the confidence and heart of the people, or make one. My brother, show thyself a man-a man of God. Your own present and eternal happiness depends upon it; and also that of others. "Be thou strong therefore." Amen. EYES.-There are eyes that invite confidence-bland, serene, clear shining, out-looking eyes, at once patient and intelligent. This is the eye of the good listener. He keeps your pace, he goes with the fluctuations of thought, fact, or feeling, or argument, without effort. You may know you are not wearying him. Not that we would impose either upon a congenial glance or easy repose of attitude any unreasonable burden; but such people are not so common but that we should recognize them and value them when we see them. As it is, men constantly think they like and prize people for their talking, when it is in fact for their listening; and every kindly intelligent man who possesses this accomplishment is certain to win himself a great social reputation and to be a pillar of any cause he takes up.-Saturday Review. Seeds of Sermons from the Minor Prophets. If the Bible as a whole is inspired, it is of vast importance that all its Divine ideas should be brought to bear upon the living world of men. Though the pulpit is the organ Divinely intended for this work, it has been doing it hitherto in a miserably partial and restricted method. It selects isolated passages, and leaves whole chapters and books for the most part untouched. Its conduct to the Minor Prophets may be taken as a case in point. How seldom are they resorted to for texts! and yet they abound with splendid passages throbbing with Divine ideas. It is our purpose to go through this section of the Holy Word; selecting, however, only such verses in each chapter and book as seem the most suggestive of truths of the most vital interest and universal application. Having passed rapidly through Hosea and Joel, two of the Minor Prophets, we come now to Amos. He, we are informed, was a native of Tekoa, a small region in the tribe of Judah, about twelve miles south-east of Jerusalem. Nothing is known of his parents. He evidently belonged to the humbler class of life, and pursued the occupation of the humble shepherd. From his flock he was divinely called to the high office of prophet; and though himself of the tribe of Judah, his mission was to Israel. He was sent to Bethel, into the kingdom of the ten tribes. He commenced his ministry in the reign of Uzziah, between 810 and 783 B.C., and therefore laboured about the same time as Hosea. In his time idolatry, with its concomitant evils and immoralities of every description, reigned with uncontrolled sway amongst the Israelites, and against these evils he hurls his denunciations. The book has been divided into three parts: "First, sentences pronounced against the Syrians, the Philistines, the Phoenicians, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Jews, and the Israelites, chapters i. and ii. Second, special discourses delivered against Israel, chapters iii. to vi. Third, visions, partly of a consolatory and partly of a comminatory nature, in which reference is had both to the times that were to pass over the ten tribes previous to the coming of the Messiah, and to what was to take place under His reign, chapters vii. to ix. His style is marked by perspicuity, elegance, energy, and fulness. His images are mostly original, and taken from the natural scenery with which he was familiar. No. LXXXI. Subject: RECTITUDE. "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces. Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled."--AMOS iii. 10, 11. We raise from this passage three general remarks. I. That there is AN ETERNAL LAW OF "RIGHT" THAT SHOULD GOVERN MAN IN ALL HIS RELA TIONS. Right, as a sentiment, is one of the deepest, most in eradicable and operative senti ments in humanity. All men feel that there is such a thing as right. What the right is, is a subject on which there has been and is a variety of opinion. Right implies a standard, and men differ about the standard. Some say, the law of your country is the standard; some say, public sentiment is the standard; some say, temporal expediency is the standard. All these are fearfully mistaken. Philosophy and the Bible teach that there is but one standard, that is the will of the Creator. That will He reveals in many ways—in nature, in history, in conscience, in Christ. Conformity to that will is right. First: The law of right should govern man in his relations with God. That law says, thank the Kindest Being most, love the Best Being most, reverence the Greatest Being most. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," etc. Secondly, The law of right should govern man in his relation to his fellow-men- "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.” This law of right is immutable. It admits of no modification. It is universal. It is binding alike on all moral beings in the universe. It is benevolent. It seeks the happiness of all. Earth will be Paradise again when the will of God is done here "as it is in heaven." Another truth implied in the passage is : II. That a PRACTICAL DISREGARD OF THIS LAW LEADS ΤΟ FRAUD AND VIOLENCE. "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces." The magnates of Samaria had no respect for the practice of right, hence they "stored up violence and robbery in their palaces." Fraud and violence are the two great primary crimes in all social life. By theformer, men are deceived, befooled, rifled of their rights and disappointed of their hopes and expectations. Never was fraud stronger in England than to-day-fraud in literature, commerce, religion, legislation. By the latter, men are disabled, wounded, crushed, murdered. Can the history of the world furnish more terrible manifes tations of violence than we have had in the wars of Christendom in this age? Why this fraud and violence? Why are these devils let loose to fill the world with lamentation and woe ? The answer is in the text "Men know not to do the right." That is, they do not practise the right. Another truth implied in the passage is : III. That FRAUD AND VIO LENCE MUST ULTIMATELY MEET WITH CONDIGN PUNISHMENT. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." How was this realized? "Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes" (2 Kings xvii. 3, 6; xviii. 9–11). The cheats and murderers of mankind will, as sure as there is justice in the world, meet with a terrible doom. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back |