Temple: their aid was harshly refused. This was the beginning of the hatred between the two nations, displayed in the haughty contempt of the Jews and in continual annoyance on the part of the Samaritans. A Jew would draw his garments closely round him lest a Samaritan passing by should brush against them and defile him. He would consider himself grossly insulted to be called a Samaritan. Hence the contemptuous words to our Lord: "Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil."
The Samaritans on their side lost no opportunity of insulting and troubling the Jews. They would not go up to the Temple of Jerusalem, and set up a rival temple of their own on Mount Gerazim. When the Jews lit beacon fires upon the hills to guide the caravans from Galilee to the Holy City at the time of the yearly Feasts, the Samaritans lit false beacons to mislead them. They illtreated travellers going up to Jerusalem, and often refused them a passage through their country, so that pilgrims had to go down the eastern bank of the Jordan and cross the river twice.
Yet our Lord was not angry with these poor people, nor did He despise them as idolaters and outcasts. He is the Good Shepherd and all are His sheep, loved and cared for one by one. He guards those that are in the fold, and follows the wanderers when they stray. He was following a wanderer now as He toiled over the hilly country of Judea and entered one of Samaria's beautiful valleys. His Divinity did not save Him from fatigue and pain, for He was truly man, like us in all things excepting sin. And so He was footsore, weary and thirsty when about noon He neared the little town of Sichem.
There was a well by the roadside, a very old one, that
