The Supernatural in the Natural

“Afhi He must needs go through Samaria” — John iv. 4,

Humanly speaking, it was all a chapter of commonplaces. There was nothing in the meeting at Syehar’s well that could not be explained by natural law. There was no miracle in the Master going through Samaria;

He must needs go through Samaria, it lay geographically on his way to Galilee. There was no miracle in the Master resting at the well; He must needs rest at the well, He was weary and He wanted rest. There was no miracle in the Master finding the woman whom He made His disciple; He must needs find her, she was in search ol water, and she came to draw. The whole scene was pieced together by the order of natural laws, by the union of natural forces, and each separate event before it happened was just what might have been foreseen. Albeit the mosaic was divine; there was more in the whole than in all the separate parts. Each natural incident was the minister to an end beyond itself — the agent toward a consummation it could not see. The three natural needs made a supernatural result; they brought Divine life into a nation. My soul, do not refuse to see God in the events of thy life because thou canst trace human links between them. “Was Peter’s vision of the meat from heaven less real because the dream came from his hunger? Nay, for the hunger and the dream were alike God’s messengers to him. Thy treasure is hid in earthen vessels. God speaks to thee in trifles — in the passage through Samaria, in the thirst for earthlywater, in the coming to a well. Say not that the little things of thy life are common; God will cleanse them in the mosaic, they will all be precious in their harmony with the completed whole. Thou shalt see the old deeds pass before thee; they shall gather themselves together to judgment, and many that are first shall be last, and many that are last shall be first. Valleys shall become mountains in the light of the perfect day. Hours that seemed to be of no account, moments that appeared to be of little value, actions that in their passing were called but ripples in the stream, will be found to have been the tidal wave that led thy life to fortune. Neglect not thy wells of Sychar, 0 my soul, for where thou seemest to be drawing only earthly water thou mayst be partaking all the time of those living springs whereof they that taste shall never thirst aain.