Gratitude becomes us in reflecting upon that diversity of means which divine wisdom uses to promote the circulation of his truth, and "win souls to Christ." The greatest beings are at his control, and are sometimes commissioned to visit the "heirs of salvation"--"Bless the Lord, ye his _angels_, that excel in strength, _that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word_;" while on other occasions he employs the most unlikely agents, or the feeblest instrumentality, to "do his pleasure." He can from the very stones "raise up children unto Abraham," convert an infuriated persecutor into an "apostle of the Gentiles," or change a Samaritan into a Christian, an infidel Gentile into a child of Abraham by faith, and a woman coming casually to draw water for her household, into an instrument of dispensing the living streams of salvation to a perishing vicinity. The early part of the narrative before us, is sufficient to show, that however slow persons whom we have an opportunity of instructing in religious truth may seem in understanding, or however reluctant to obey it, we ought never either to despair of success, or be weary of repeating our instruction. "I charge thee," says Paul in addressing Timothy, "before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." Who can tell the favoured period? Who can calculate the extent of the benefit conferred when one sinner is "converted from the error of his ways?" And who would not rejoice at the thought of having his final hour cheered by the recollection of having been the means of letting in the light of an eternal day even upon an individual of the human race, who was once sitting in the darkness of spiritual delusion, and pining in the dungeon of guilt, and misery, and helplessness? Many things in religion, which we at present misunderstand, may probably become intelligible in the course of future experience, and a great variety of interesting truths now unknown will certainly be revealed in another world. The woman of Samaria could not for a considerable time comprehend the metaphorical allusions of Christ; but when she had "found the Messiah," she was no longer at a loss to ascertain the signification of the stranger's assurance, that he could have given her, had she requested it, "living water." The disclosure of one fact, illustrated another, and in spiritual knowledge and attainment she went on doubtless with a rapidity proportioned to her extraordinary advantages.