Volume 2

186
Life of Jesus Christ
with Jacob; as if she felt the deep significance of these
words, she pointed toward the south, to the temple not
far off on Mount Garizim, and said questioningly: "Our
Fathers adored on that mountain, and you say that
Jerusalem is the place where men must adore?" Jesus
replied with the words: "Woman! Believe Me, the hour
cometh when neither in Garizim nor in Jerusalem wilt
thou adore the Father." In this reply He meant to say:
"Samaria, the hour cometh when neither here nor in the
sanctuary of the Temple will God be adored, because He
walks in the midst of you," and He continued: "You
adore that which you know not, but we adore that which
we know, for salvation is of the Jews." Here He related to
her a similitude of the wild, unfruitful suckers of trees,
which shoot forth into wood and foliage, but produce no
fruit. It was as if He had said to the sect: "Samaria, thou
hast not security in thy worship. Thou hast no union, no
sacrament, no pledge of alliance, no Ark of the Covenant,
no fruit. The Jews, from whonl the Messiah will be born,
have all these things, the Promise, and its fulfillment."
And again Jesus said: "But the hour cometh and now
is when the true' adorers will adore the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father wills such to adore Him. God
is a spirit, and they that adore Him must adore Him in
spirit, and in truth." By these words the Redeemer
meant: "Samaria, the hour cometh, yea, it now is, when
the Father by true adorers will be honored in the Holy
Ghost and in the Son, who is the Way and the Truth."
Dina replied: "I know that the Messiah cometh. When
He is come, He will tell us all things." In these words
here at the Well of Jacob, spoke that portion of the
Samaritan sect, which might lay some legitimate claim to
the Promise: "I hope for, I believe in the coming of the
Messiah. He will help us." Jesus responded: "I am He, I
who now speak to thee!"
By this He said to all Samaria that would be con­