Something to ponder . . .

Here's what Spurgeon had to say about the response of Jesus' disciples when they found him talking with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:27). Sounds a lot like the Blessed Alliance to me.

“First, it was sufficiently offensive that the person with whom Jesus was conversing was a woman. My beloved sisters, you owe much to the Gospel, for it is only by its agency that you are raised to your proper place. For what said the rabbis? ‘Rather burn the sayings of the law than teach them to a woman.’ Again, ‘Let no man prolong conversation with a woman; let no one converse with a woman in the streets, nor even with his own wife.’ Women were thought to be unfit for profound religious instruction and altogether inferior beings. My sisters, we do not think that you are superior to us, though some of you perhaps fancy so. But we are right glad to own your equality and to know that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. Jesus has lifted you up to your true place, side by side with man. Even the apostles were tainted at first with that horrible superstition that made them marvel that Jesus openly talked with a woman.”

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon