for a whole race of Samaritans? It seemed very poor management of a
cause, new in that country. "Far be such unwisdom from thee, Lord," we
can hear the impassioned and worldly-wise Peter exclaim. But our Lord
chose to sacrifice the temporary success of his kingdom that he might
be true to the eternal principles of that kingdom; and so he talked
with this sinful woman of this despised race just as considerately as
with Nicodemus. He invited her to his discipleship just as cordially,
and to the same discipleship. There is not a hint that the Good
Shepherd built another fold for the Samaritan sheep, lest some of the
Jewish flock should jump over the fence, if they were put into the
same fold.

These Samaritans were not only degraded and despised socially, but
they were also superstitious in their religious beliefs, and
semi-heathen in their forms of worship. It would take generations to
bring them up to a level with the Jewish Christians. They could not
comprehend much of the intelligent preaching that Christ addressed to
the Jews. Why not appoint a special missionary for them, and then
quietly exclude them from the ordinary gatherings? This course would
avoid criticism; it would not violate the established ideas of social
and religious propriety. Nothing need be said about it. It would not
be best to put it on parchment; just let it be quietly whispered about
that the disciples thought it was better for the Samaritan Christians
not to meet with the others. The disciples were surrounded by
prejudiced people, to be sure, but these prejudices were very old;
time would correct all these social and race inequalities. The
disciples thought it better to ignore them, and just organize and
carry on their work with no reference to these degraded and
superstitious Samaritans. Such seems to have been somewhat the
reasoning of these timid disciples. It was not our Lord's reasoning;