'_Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat.)_' Such a request from a weary and thirsty traveller would not commonly have been refused by a woman of Palestine; and certainly we have no reason to think, from the Gospels, that a Samaritan was likely to be less friendly or courteous than one of the Southern people. It is not probable that the woman meant to refuse. But she thought she had a right, on behalf of her country, to trifle a little with the pride of a Jew, who, in a difficulty, would ask a favour of those whom he despised, though he would not hold any intercourse with them, or meet them upon fair terms. '_How is it_,' said she, '_that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings_' (do not traffic) '_with the Samaritans_.' That word, '_have no traffic or dealing_,' seems to explain the first part of our Lord's answer. '_If thou knewest the_ GIFT _of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water._' She had come day after day to draw water at that well. Had she never known that that water was a _gift_ of God? Had no thirst on a hot day, or no failure of the spring, taught her that? Was water a thing to traffic in? Did not she recollect that it was a man, and not merely a Jew, who was saying, '_Give me to drink_'? Did she never think of the gift of water as something very free and universal? This lesson was contained in the opening of the sentence; and the look and the voice of the Stranger had, perhaps, already carried it home in some degree to the woman's conscience. But the speech suddenly took another turn. There might be an exchange of gifts here also. '_If thou knewest who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water._'