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The Nameless Woman of Samaria.

tion. A Jew! says He, his eye melting in benignity upon her. Yea, and much more than a Jew. Ah! if thou knewest God's unspeakable gift, even Him who saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst not have feared even to speak first. Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Now mark her answer, with an eye pure of evil.

She says, respectfully, in effect this: "Sir (Lord), I see that thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is too deep to reach. Since, then, it is not from the well, I would fain know whence thou bringest that living water. Art thou still greater than he who gave us this well and was content with its water, our father, Jacob?"

To this last trustful question, not captious challenge, "Art thou greater than Jacob?" Jesus gives emphatic answer: "Whosoever drinketh of Jacob's well shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

The woman proves that we have not mistaken her trustful simplicity by her immediate response to the gracious invitation to ask: "Lord, give me this water, that I thirst not," and by the confused apprehension of his meaning with which she adds, "Neither come hither to draw." Her rare and childlike spirit accepts as fast as grace is revealed and faster than her understanding receives.

But her answer shows her spiritual thirst not yet defined and urgent enough. She needs more poignant conviction of sin. Her conscience must be called in. To this end the Lord lays bare her shame, and pierces her through with the glance of an omniscient eye. From the effect of his statement, "Thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband," I am inclined to think that her past history and the illicit character of her present relation were secrets which she supposed to be confined to the breasts of the guilty parties. She had evidently shrunk from a falsehood, in her acknowledgement, "I have no husband." But why did she feel so sure that a stranger could have no natural information of her condition if it had been notorious among her neighbors?

The words, "Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet," were a cry of conviction and confession. What next? Commentators tell us, a theological cavil, the common subterfuge of obstinate impenitency. This interpretation certainly does not hold well with anything else we find in the woman. To make the whole harmonious,

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we must read a little between the lines, an act often requisite with the incomplete and artless rhetoric of the Galilean apostles. We must connect her conviction of sin to her difficulty about worship, not by a hidden obstinacy and evasiveness most foreign of all things to her nature, but by an unexpressed sense of expiation wanted. Where can she, a sinner, find true atonement and acceptance before God? This question is the substance of her appeal to the prophet from the conflicting instructions that perplex her. Her language is in effect the language of Job: "Oh, that I knew where I might find him! I would come even to his seat. Our fathers send me to this mountain, and the Jews to Jerusalem; but, oh, thou revealer of secrets, what savest thou?"

What, neither? This is unexpected. At this radical subversion of the very symbols of faith, the fanes of Jehovah, if such there be anywhere, appears her first hesitation. Moreover, the grace of this new Gospel is inconceivable to her. Does the Father Himself "seek" His true worshippers, and have we no reverent pilgrimage to make to him at all? Does He come forth from His holy place to meet us in our profane and common walks and enter into direct communion with our guilty spirits? But when Messias cometh he will tell us all about it.

"I that speak unto thee am He." What more between the lines? What between the disclosure of her Saviour and her impetuous rush to the city to proclaim him, even with her woman's voice, in the gates and through the streets? Not a word is written. But much was done. A soul was born of God. A sinner and Savior were united forever. An apostle was baptized with the Holy Ghost, and the Gospel was sent forth with swift and mighty witness.

Jesus saw of the travail of His soul, and was satisfied. Vainly they besought Him, saying: "Master, eat." With a glance kindled by supernatural refreshment, He told them of food he had found unknown to them, in the work of his Father and of salvation. While they were gone away into the city to buy meat, He had sowed and reaped and eaten. Usually, said He, it is true as men say, "herein" as in natural things, that one soweth and another reapeth; even as ye are entered into the fruition of the labors of former generations. But here are no four months of vegetative delay. The sower and the reaper here rejoice together. The seed sown today is white today to harvest, and he that reapeth it receiveth wages and gathereth fruit that are both unto eternal life.

They stayed two days longer, reaping in the Samaritan city of Sychar, a believing city, a saved city. And was there not "great joy in that city?" There they left the Nameless Woman to finish. and to keep the harvest. Thence, long ago, leaving not a letter of her name written on earth, she returned to Him with rejoicing, bringing her sheaves with her.

Edited by Hermann Warszawiak.

MONTHLY LETTER BY H. W.

Dear Christian Friends:

As already announced, the opportunity is given us to resume the publication of "The Jewish-Christian" within the covers of the new evangelical magazine SALVATION, and as this offer comes to us entirely unsought and unexpected, we take for granted that it is "His will" that we should still, from time to time, let the Christian world, and our friends in particular, know what the Lord is doing among us, and how He is pleased to help and bless us while carrying on His work among the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

WHAT WE DO.

A false rumor and impression is let out by our enemies, that we have ceased our mission work, or, in fact, have been forced to give up the work entirely, owing to lack of support, and to the determined opposition against us.

We want all to know that this widespread rumor is as bald a falsehood as the rest of those that travel so fast around the globe concerning us. Our work has not ceased for a single day. No matter what opposition and persecution we may have to meet-not the devil and all his tools can frighten us away from the holy charge committed unto us by the Lord. And we may as well say right here that we are more than determined to surrender it to no human or satanic power. God himself has singularly placed us here and entrusted this, His marvelous work, to our hands, weak though they be, and none but He can ever remove us from our post and solemnly vowed duties in the holy mission.

THE MEETINGS.

By Divine grace and help we are conducting, as heretofore, five meetings regularly every week, in the same mission hall as of old, at No. 424 Grand Street, this city, and not only is the hall crowded at every service, but as a rule, not an exception, large numbers of Jews are turned away from our doors for want of room, particularly so every Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, when the crowds are the largest. Considering that we are preaching on the east side of this city for nearly nine years, and for over three years

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now at this mission hall, these constant crowds of Jews can hardly be taken for curiosity seekers at the outset. One need only visit a single meeting to be convinced that the Spirit of God rests on the work, for the earnestness and rapt attention given by the whole audience to the purest and simplest Gospel sermons is almost beyond comparison. They really seem like a hungry crowd craving bread, and now it is the "bread of life" they are so anxious for. I know that there are determined enemies who will say this is "all a lie," while prejudiced friends will be more charitable and simply say "exaggeration." I challenge both to "come and see" any one meeting they choose, and then deny the above statements if they dare.

PERSONAL.

True, indeed, all this is wrought under fearful suffering of many kinds, the hardest of which is to be condemned and cast off by one's best of friends, when one is innocent. But, thanks be to God, we are beginning to see the dawn of day, since the righteous action of the supreme ecclesiastical court, the Synod of New York, in our behalf, and in view of the reversal of a verdict that was rendered against the facts and evidence in the case, which is sure to occur as soon as the order of the Synod for a new trial can be carried out.

Not to dwell on private afflictions, the condition of years in which all income is absorbed by the barest necessities of the mission chapel itself, tells the story coldly, but God only knows the daily agony of the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," where there is none in sight. Never had I and a faithful wife imagined the possibility of such a bitter lot as this, but thank God, we are both firm in the belief that it is all for our good, and are ready to pass through the seven times heated furnace with the watchword, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”

In conclusion, I desire to thank, from my inmost heart, the few friends who have faithfully stood by us through all this hurricane of persecution, and through whose help it was made possible to carry on the work until now. May the good Lord pour showers of blessings on them and grant them His reward. Amen. I must refrain from saying any more, though my heart is overfilled, but I cannot close without expressing, in a few words, our deep grief and sorrow for the loss of such devoted and faithful friends as the late Rev. Dr. John Hall and Miss Douglas, of Edinburgh.

Your persecuted brother in Christ,

HERMANN WARSZAWIAK.

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And" The Jewish Christian.''

We here repeat several of the statements made by Mr. Warszawiak in "The Whole Truth," in answer to his accusers. He says:

On all that is holy and dear to my soul I hereby assure every one who ever sent me a donation during the entire period of my missionary career, that the money, small or large, has been to the best of my judgment honestly used for the extension of the work in which I was engaged and the upkeeping and upbuilding of the Master's Kingdom among my brethren the Jews.

That it is absolutely false in every particular that I ever in my life was engaged in gambling or speculating with funds of the mission or any funds whatsoever, the [refuted] testimony of the hired Jew detectives to the contrary notwithstanding.

Out of respect to my much beloved late pastor, the Rev. Dr. John Hall, who was the moderator at my so-called trial in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and who, as every one knows, had it put on record that he believed "the charges were not proven" and therefore disagreed with those in the Session who voted against me, firmly believing in the innocence of the accused, I will refrain from saying anything here of that famous trial (?) behind closed doors in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

It is untrue that my dear wife and I have any such intention as to return back to our parents and become Jews again for the sake of the money they offer us or for any other pretext, or bribe of any kind. It is true that our parents use every device and make every effort to gain that end, doubtless believing that "now is the time;" but all their efforts have met with the same determined refusal from our side as heretofore, and we trust they are convinced by this time that we are, by the help of God, determined and more than willing to rather suffer persecution, shame and disgrace under the yoke of Christ, and starve and die as Christians, than live in all the happiness and luxury they can possibly give us for becoming backsliders. This I state at the request of Mrs. Warszawiak and because the rumor is thick everywhere.

It is an untruth that our mission has been given up or closed up. By divine grace and help I have been able, in spite of every opposition and hinderance, to conduct the work of Christ among my brethren continually in the very same mission house, No. 424 Grand Street, New York City, as hitherto, and our meetings are attended by large numbers of Jews, filling the mission hall to its utmost capacity and eagerly listening to the preaching of "the truth as it is in Jesus." That many of our dear Jewish brethren have also given their hearts to Christ and openly confessed Him before the world in baptism and have thenceforward "witnessed a good confession" in spite of the persecution and the loss of all things, is an open record for all who wish to know and see for themselves.

I here desire to bear my humble testimony that as "all things work together for good to them that love God," so have all these bitter trials through which we passed and still do pass, been