traveller, provided his horse be good, and himself able and willing, can reach Nablous in one day from Jerusalem. But wishing to take things quietly, and not as if carrying the mail, we broke the journey by encamping here.

As usual after ablutions and dinner, we rejoiced in the stars, for the weather was splendid; and we put a stop for a time to the incessant jabber of the Arabs, who came in crowds from the neighbouring village, by indulging them with music from our inexhaustible box, instead of backsheesh from our far from inexhaustible purse.

Early next day, we sighted Shiloh to the east, but did not ride up to it, though it was only half an hour off our route. There is nothing to see at this famous spot, although one is glad to pause and gaze upon it from the distance. Its situation is well pronounced as seen from the path we travelled. It is a round low hill at the end of a plain, and leaning on a more elevated range above it. There are no remains at it of any importance. All around is grey, bare, and barren. But it is interesting to see the place where that man of highest and purest character, Samuel, ministered as a boy. His was a childhood which has been blessed to the comfort of many a parent, as revealing both God's fatherhood as a teacher of babes, and the meek obedience which even a simplehearted child may possess and which (thank God) may be kept until old age! Here too ministered old Eli who, notwithstanding his piety and his possession of a high mood of mind which made him tremble for the ark of God, is an everlasting warning to parents, against the soft-hearted selfishness which will not restrain a selfindulgent family. During many a long year the tribes went up to the ark at Shiloh. But now all is silence, desolation, and barrenness, with nothing to be seen, yet much to be learned and remembered.

As we advanced on our journey, the valleys expanded into broader plains, and the paths became better; the whole country of Ephraim evideucing a fertility and agricultural richness which cannot be found in the rocky fastuesses of Palestine. One saw, from the nature of the country, how there must have been a strong

temptation on the part of Ephraim to lean on his own arm of flesh, and to say, "I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing;" and also to seek to make himself the head of the nation, and to prefer Samaria to Jerusalem, -just as England would not brook to have Edinburgh for its capital.

The richest and most magnificent expanse of cultivated soil we saw on this journey was the plain of Mukhra, which extends for about seven miles. It suddenly burst on our view from the summit of a high ridge over which our road passed. The promontories of Gerizim and Ebal plunge their rocky headlands into it from the west, while a range of low hills separate it from the descent towards the Jordan on the east. We skirted this plain, until we sat down under the shadow of Gerizim, to read and to meditate, as pilgrims have done for centuries, at Jacob's Well.

There has never been a doubt entertained by the most sceptical or critical traveller regarding the authenticity of this well. Beyond all question it is the one at which our Saviour rested as he journeyed along the route which travellers generally follow from Jerusalem to Galilee. Every feature of the landscape starts into life as we read the narrative of His memorable conversation with the woman of Samaria:-the plain of cornfields which were then as now whitening to the harvest; the mountain rising above, on which the Samaritan temple was built; the neighbouring town of Shechem; the Samaritans worshipping, as they still do, towards "this mountain," and there only ;-all are evidence of its truth, apart from the common and unbroken tradition.

The well is not what we understand by that name. It is not a spring of water bubbling up from the earth, nor is it reached by an excavation. It is a shaft cut in the living rock, about nine feet in diameter, and now upwards of seventy feet deep. As an immense quantity of rubbish has fallen into it, the original depth must have been much greater, probably twice what it is now. It was therefore intended by its first engineer as a reservoir, rather than as a means of reaching a spring. Then again, if any wall, as some suppose, once surrounded its mouth, on which the traveller could rest, it is now gone. The mouth is funnel shaped, and its sides are formed by the rubbish of old buildings, a church having once been erected over it. But we can descend this funnel, and enter a cave, as it were, a few feet below the surface, which is the remains of a small dome that once covered the mouth. Descending a few feet we perceive in the floor an aperture partly covered by a flat stone, and leaving sufficient space through which we can look into darkness. We sent a plumbline down into the water-with which the well certainly seemed to be abundantly supplied at the time of our visit.

Many have been puzzled to account for Jacob's having dug such a well here, when the whole valley of Shechem, only a quarter of an hour's walk off,

is more musical with streams than any other in Palestine. But some one dug the well,-and who more likely than Jacob, not only to have on his own property what was in his time more valuable than a private coal mine would be to us; but also for the moral purpose of keeping his family and dependants as separate as possible from the depraved Shechemites?

Why the woman of Samaria should have come here to draw water, so far away from the valley and its many springs, is a question which may be more difficult to answer. I cannot think it could have been because of the superior quality of the water, for no cistern could afford a purer, cooler, or better quality than that which gushes everywhere along the Valley of Nablous. It seems to me that her motive was a superstitious one-a motive pertaining to her conscience. It was to her "a holy well," such as are frequented in Ireland as places of Roman Catholic devotion, or rather superstition. She was restless, dissatisfied, and unhappy; burdened with a sense of wrongdoing, and thirsting after what she had never found. Thus her whole state of mind in coming here to draw water, and her attempt to assuage the thirst of her spirit for peace, would be an unconscious preparation for her reception of the Saviour's teaching, which was so suited to reveal her plague, and also to heal her of it. It is evident that she was, considering her circumstances, well informed as to Scripture facts; that she was interested in the "Church" questions of her place and time, and had much of that kind of "religious" feeling (often possessed by persons of a susceptible and emotional temperament) which, where principle is wanting, gives birth at once to a sensuous superstition and a sensuous life. But before evil habits have "petrified the feelings," there is a stage at which such persons are more easily impressed than others with less heart though perhaps more "respectability.”

How long will it be, we ask with eager longing, ere clergy and people shall truly possess the spirit expressed in these words?"Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father... The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."*

This well is indeed a holy spot. One is glad that the contending ecclesiastical parties in the land have built their churches on places which

Once when abroad I heard an eloquent sermon preached by a dignitary of the Christian Church, on this passage, in which he ridiculed "Sectaries," who, being but of yesterday, presumed to speak of our fathers as he and his brethren could do. He lamented their sin in daring to worship on any other mountain that "the true Jerusalem," his own church of course; where alone, by use of its appointed forms and rituals, God could be worshipped in spirit and in truth!