John 4:28-30 The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men,… The work of the Spirit of God in the heart is not a fiction, not a form, but a life. To use the simile of this narrative, it is a fountain not only "springing up" (bubbling up), but overflowing its cistern, and the superfluous supply going forth to gladden other waste places. Not the mass of stagnant water without outlet, but the clear, sparkling lake, discharging its rush of living streams which sing their joyous way along the contiguous valleys, and make their course known by the thread of green beautifying and fertilizing as they flow, Or, if we may employ another figure, let it be the stone thrown into the same still lake. The ripples formed are deepest in the centre. Christianity is deepest in the heart in which its truths have sunk; but its influence expands in ever-widening concentric circles, till the wavelets touch the shore. Religion, intensest in a man's own soul and life, should embrace family, household, kindred, neighbourhood, country, until it knows no circumference but the world! Christianity breaks down all walls of narrow isolation, and proclaims the true brotherhood of the race. Selfishness closes the heart, shuts out from it the rains and dews and summer sunshine; but Christianity, or rather the great Sun of light, shines; — the closed petals gradually unfold in the genial beams: and they keep not their fragrance to themselves, but waft it all around. Every such flower — the smallest that blushes unseen to the world — becomes a little censer swinging its incense-perfume in the silent air, or sending it far and wide by the passing breeze. (J. R. Macduff, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,WEB: So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people, |
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