distinctly marked. We see her pass successively from respect of the virtuous man who speaks to her, to the desire of obtaining that which he promises her, although as yet she is ignorant of its nature. Next she recognizes him for a prophet, and in this very avowal which she makes admits herself to be a sinner. She wisely profits by the occasion to get instruction; she listens with docility, and, when once enlightened, she burns with the desire of communicating to her fellow-citizens the light which has just sparkled before her eyes. She leaves her pitcher, as the apostles left their nets: she runs to the city, which she immediately fills with the rumor of the wonderful discovery she had just made. Her zeal for the glory of him whom she announces goes to the extent of prompting her to sacrifice her own fame, by adducing, to prove that he was a prophet, her own misdeeds, which he could have known only by a supernatural light. She invites all the inhabitants to come and satisfy themselves as to the truth of the things she recounts; and, with a success which we may compare to that of the first preaching of St. Peter, she succeeded in as short a time in gaining over to him an entire people. Incomprehensible effect of grace, which in a moment makes a sinner a penitent, and a penitent an apostle. But whilst no better illustration can be given of the efficacy of divine grace, where else is to be found a more affecting picture of its soothing operation, or where can we find a better instance of that admirable art which shrouds, as it were, with the veil of chance, the designs of God, and the most maturely reflected projects of his mercy? Jesus returns from Jerusalem to Galilee; he traverses Samaria, which happens to be upon his route; he halts about mid-day, while his disciples were gone in search of provisions to a neighboring city: he is tired, and he sits down near a well. A woman comes there to draw water; he is thirsty, and he asks her for a drink; she refuses, or seems to refuse it, under pretence of the division which exists between the two nations. What have we here that does not appear the effect of pure chance? Yet all this is nothing else but the execution of the decrees of the Almighty. God, from all eternity, had determined to inspire the woman with a wish to come to this spot on the day and at the hour when she actually came there. She came there of her own free will; but there she must have come inevitably. Heaven

and earth must have perished ere she missed the appointment. The discourse which Jesus Christ held with her, and which seemed entirely occasioned by the good or bad things which she said that discourse was also preconcerted in the councils of the Most High; and that portion of knowledge which was to be communicated to her had been weighed in the eternal scale. Before she was in the world, yea, before the world existed, it was settled that Jesus Christ should originate in her mind the idea of, and the thirst for, a water which should forever quench thirst, and whose inexhaustible source gushed forth unto life everlasting. Also, that in order to give her at the same time both faith and penance, he should disclose to her both what he was, and what she herself was, that he should enlighten her on the errors of Samaritan worship and the imperfection of the Jewish; that thereupon he should elevate her to the knowledge of a universal and eternal worship, which should extend itself over all times and every people, making truth succeed to figures, spirit to the letter, and the homage of the heart to legal ceremonies. Moreover, it was also settled from eternity that she should be informed at the time of which we speak, that this interior and spiritual worship, alone capable of worthily honoring God who is a spirit, was going to be established; nay, that it actually was established, inasmuch as he who was to be its author and its object-this Messiah whose coming she expected-he himself now spoke to her, and she heard his voice. All these great truths, I say, it was settled that Jesus Christ should reveal unto her, and that independently of her own voluntary effusions, although he said nothing to her that did not seem to flow naturally from her own discourse. Nothing is chance in the eye of God. Nothing happens in the universe but what he has foreseen, but what he has wished, and what has its first cause in his decrees ever free, yet eternal and eternally immutable. I except sin, which, like all the rest, he hath foreseen, but which he can only permit, and which he makes subservient to the execution of his designs. I return to what immediately followed the discourse that gave rise to these reflections.

The following is the instruction which Christ gave to his disciples. As they found him exhausted with fatigue and hunger, (a) "They

(a) St. John, iv. 31-43.

prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat." Every occurrence presented to Jesus an occasion of instruction and edification: water had been such for the Samaritan; here food was so for those who offered it him. “I have meat to eat, he said to them, which you know not. The disciples said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat? Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work." He then added, to teach them what that work was in which they were incessantly to co-operate with him: "Do not you say there are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh (14)? Behold, I say to you: Lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest." The apostles did not say what Jesus supposes them to say. These words, "there are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh," was a proverbial way of saying that there was no pressing hurry, and that there was still time for rest. The disciples so understood it with reference to the functions of their ministry. Jesus undeceives them by showing them the countries all yellowing into ripeness, figurative of those people who were ready to receive the Gospel, and of the Samaritans in particular, who, at the moment he was speaking, thronged to him in crowds. Yet, as the apostles might have said to him, the harvest doth not come till after seed-time, Jesus Christ informs them that the seed was already sowed by the prophets their predecessors, whose toil, though at first sight unproductive, was now going to yield a harvest that should gladden both sowers and reapers: this is what the Saviour meant to convey by the following words: "He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth (15). I have sent you to reap that in which you did

(14) They then were between Easter and Pentecost, and it is known that Pentecost is the time when harvest is reaped in Palestine: a proof of what we presently state, that this was a proverb of the country, and not a saying of the apostles.

(15) This proverb only has, in the circumstances in which used by Jesus Christ, half its application. It signifies, in the ordinary application, that one has all the trouble, another all the profit. Jesus Christ wishes merely to convey that the reaper is different from the sower, although one and the other were equally to share the crop.

not labor: others have labored, and you have entered into their labors (16)."

"Now many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him for the word of the woman giving testimony (17): He told me all things whatsoever I have done. So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there, and he abode there two days; and many more believed in him, because of his own word. They said to the woman (18): We now believe not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world (19)."

After the two days which Jesus had granted to the earnest solicitations of the Samaritans, "he departed thence, and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet (20) hath

(16) Have not, then, the apostles toiled as much as the prophets? Yes, but when toiling they had the consolation of reaping the fruit of their labors. Theirs was the toil of the harvest-time, wherein pain is mingled with joy, and the joy exceeds the pain.

Sow always, ye laborers in the field of the Lord: the seed will be productive at the time when your hopes are at the lowest; or, if it produce nothing, your reward is not the less assured by a Master who recompenses the toil, and not the success.

(17) It is strange to see them crediting so easily the testimony of a lewd woman. This has induced some to believe that she had contrived to save appearances, and preserve the reputation of a decent widow. Whatever weight there is in this conjecture, grace might give sufficient force to the word of a disgraced woman to make her find credence in people's minds, and to make this trust in her neither precipitate nor imprudent.

(18) This woman, according to Origen, represents the Church. We believe at the present day on her testimony; but when we shall have the happiness to see Jesus Christ face to face, we shall say with the Samaritans: We believe now not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.

(19) This was the first people who recognized in Jesus Christ the amiable character of Saviour of the world. There is no doubt but Jesus Christ declared unto them who he was, and we see here what faith they reposed in his words; but, moreover, they who were not Jews, and who expected the Messiah, could not be fettered by the prejudice of those who regarded him as the Saviour of the Jews merely; wherefore they could only expect him as Saviour of the world, and this, therefore, disposed them towards the belief of this article of Christian faith.

(20) Elsewhere we shall explain this sentence, which seemingly Jesus Christ did not advance, but Saint John gives as the motive of the journey he made into Galilee. This forms a very embarrassing difficulty. For the little welcome that a prophet receives in his country was a reason for Jesus to remain in Samaria, where he was so well received, and not to leave it and return to Galilee, which to him was that ungrateful country, whose disgraceful proceedings made him say that a prophet enjoys no consideration in

no honor in his own country. When he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day; for they also went to the festival day. (a) And the fame of him went out through the whole country. He taught in the synagogues, and was magnified by all."

CHAPTER X.

AN OFFICER'S SON HEALED.-CURE OF ONE POSSESSED, AND OF THE MOTHER-IN-LAW

OF SAINT PETER.-THREE MEN REPROVED.

(b)" JESUS came again, therefore, into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death." Since he thus had recourse to Jesus Christ, he may have some time previously commenced believing; but his incipient faith was as yet merely a

(a) St. Luke, iv. 14, 15.

(b) St. John, iv. 46-54.

his country and among his kindred. This is explained by saying that what was called the Saviour's country is not entire Galilee, but solely the city of Nazareth, whither he did not wish to return, for the reason assigned by the Evangelist, choosing rather to dwell at Capharnaum or in other parts of Galilee. This explanation, which appeared to me more satisfactory than five or six others given by the interpreters, is still far from being satisfactory. Those who will not content themselves, may consider this passage as not explained what inconvenience can result from this? There are enough of matters clear in Scripture to support faith and maintain piety. Those who wish to understand every thing are not aware that intelligence of every thing is not granted to all; what you cannot understand another does understand, and the latter in his turn does not understand what you do. Besides, the explanations which are not satisfactory to me are so to others, and there is no decision whether they or I judge the best. Whatever be the case, let us seek and ask for light; yet let us respect the obscurity which should not at all weaken the faith and veneration due to the divine Scriptures, because, as I have said, there remain enough of things so clear as incontestably to assure both one and the other. And reason alone teaches us that we are to judge, not what is clear by what is obscure, but what is obscure by that which is clear.