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FORMER pupil visiting in Jersey City during the holidays, wrote,

Dear Mr. Barton:

You cannot have missed me as I have missed your helpful, healing words. I cannot let the season of good will and kind wishes pass without saying a word of greeting and gratitude to the one who has shown me a better way of life. If we reap what we sow, then surely you and Mrs. B. will reap a rich harvest of good things, if the wishes of your many friends are of any avail.

You remember the last treatments I had were for succss etc. I think our investments are coming out all right-at least for good interest on the money.

I wanted so much to see you before I left, but many duties prevented.

Oh, my dear teacher, I do try to be brave, but I would like a word of encouragement from you and a treatment for wisdom that I may be enabled to do well what falls to my share in this workaday world.

May Good be with you and yours this Happy New Year. Always your friend, Mrs. H. A. B.

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PLAINLY dressed man, who introduced himself as Mr. John Smith, walked into a doctor's ofoffice in a Texas town, and, having explained his symptoms, asked the doctor how long it would take to cure him. The doctor, who had treated the visitor with every possible courtesy, replied:

"You will require careful treatment under my personal supervision for about two months before you are able to resume your labors in the bank."

"Doctor, you are fooling yourself. I am not Smith, the banker, but Smith the street car driver."

"Is that so? Well, my good fellow, I don't see what you came to me for. There is nothing the matter with you except that you are not a banker."

BIBLE LESSONS

Lesson VI.-Feb. 5.

ESUS AT JACOB'S WELL.-John 4:5-14.

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J LESSON KEY-NOTES:-"Whosoever will, let

him take the water of life freely."
Time:-About December, A. D. 27.

Place:-Samaria, at Jacob's well, near Sychar, about a mile from Shechem, now called Nablus.

5, 6. The parcel of ground which Jacob allotted to his son Joseph is historic. There is yet found that famous well. It is now 75 feet deep, but was originally much deeper. The bottom has much rubbish in it. It is about 7 feet 6 inches in diameter, but the mouth of it is a narrow neck 4 feet long and only wide enough for a man to pass through.

In that parcel of ground, also, rest the remains of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph. There was held the great council on entering Canaan and the meeting later on at which it was decided to divide the Kingdom.

It was noon when Jesus sat down on the low curbing of this well to rest. Josephus tells about Moses resting at a well at mid-day and some women came to water their flocks.

7, 8, 9. Jesus' diciples being gone into the city to get something for their lunch, he asked the woman who had already drawn up a bucket of cool, sparkling water, to give him a drink of it. The woman was a Gentile or heathen, a people despised and shunned by the Jews. The woman saw by Jesus, dress and general appearance that he was a Jew and was astonished that he asked her for water. She did not know what a great, unbound soul she addressed, one who knew

but one Father for all and recognized one common brotherhood among all nations and people.

10. "The gift of God" here has reference to the very familiar cry of the Eastern water-carrier. "The gift of God," he cries as he goes along with his water skin on his shoulder. Living water is the life-giving spirit.

11, 12. The woman showed by her reply that she did not at all comprehend Jesus' meaning. She was spiritually in the dark, as all people are who have not been awakened.

13, 14. Water is a symbol of spiritual life. The spiritual fountain is within, in the spirit realm. When opened up by the word of God, by the Christ presence awakened within the soul, it becomes a living well of the pure waters of life, springing up into eternal, or aionian, life.

Each one has that fountain in him, but mostly it is not active; it is covered up with the rubbish of materiality and sin, indulgence of sensuous desires. It requires the word of Truth to cleanse away the rubbish and open the spring into activity.

1.

Tell about Jacob's well.

2. Why did Jesus stop there?

3. Why could not the woman understand him?

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THE SECOND MIRACLE IN CANA.-John 4: 43-54.

LESSON KEY-NOTE:-"The same works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.' Time:-December A. D. 27, or January A. D. 28.

Place:-Cana, Galilee, a few miles from Nazareth. This is the point where the other three gospels begin their account of Jesus' ministry. John begins farther back.

Galilee was very densely peopled having a population, according to Josephus, of three millions, including 204 cities and towns of over 15,000 inhabitants each.

The people of Galilee were moral, intelligent, industrious and enterprising. They were much broader and freer in thought than the people of Judea.

43. Jesus was on his way to Galilee from Judea when he came to Sychar in Samaria. There he was detained two days as the people insisted some work and teaching in their city.

upon his doing

44. Familiarity begets contempt. People think that the person whom they know well is as common as themselves. If we could thoroughly know all about God, we would not respect him. An air of mystery is essential to power over the credulous. Mrs. Eddy thoroughly understands this principle. If she went about meeting people, shaking hands in a hale-fellowwell-met way, she might be popular, but would lose her halo of dignity and authority.

45. The Galileans had seen some of Jesus' works in Jerusalem when they attended the feast of the Passover. So they believed in him and gladly received him.

46. Cana was the place where Jesus made wine out of water at the wedding feast. This is claimed by our New Testament writers to be his first miracle; but the Apocryphal New Testament mentions several before

this one.

The nobleman was probably an officer under Herod. Capernaum was a city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, about 20 or 25 miles northeast of Cana. The marshy grounds about the city caused fevers.

47, 48, 49. The nobleman believed Jesus could

heal his son, if he were by his side.

Jesus' reply signifies a gentle rebuke. You must see a sign before you believe. But the father thought only of his child-"Come, ere my child die."

50,-54. Jesus gave the boy an absent treatment, and it was one o'clock in the afternoon. The healer and patient were 25 miles apart. The healing was instantaneous, as was afterward ascertained. Jesus knew the work was accomplished and so informed the father, who believed. He went back home, not in

doubt and fear, but rejoicing and expecting to find his son well.

We should take a lesson from this both in healing faith and permitting belief. Where both coincide, the work is certain.

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5. What of the nobleman's belief?

6. How do faith and belief work together?

7. How was the boy healed?

Lesson VIII.-Feb. 19.

JESUS AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA.-John

5:1-15.

LESSON KEY-NOTE:-"A great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles."

Time: In the spring of A. D. 28.

Place:-Jerusalem by the side of the pool of Bethesda. Conder thinks this pool was what is now called the Fountain of the Virgin at the foot of Ophel slope, southeast of the temple. It is the only natural spring in Jerusalem and still has periodical "troubling of the water."

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