, 1900-02-21
A SUNDAY SERMON
CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF
SAMARIA" BY REV. Fl. V.
ROMINGER.
The Greatest of All Sermons by the
Greatest of All Preachers-God is a
Spirit, and They That Worship
Him Must Worship Him in Spirit
and in Truth"

At the Presbyterian church Sunday
Rev. H. V. Rominger preached on the
subject of Christ and the Woman of
Samaria." He said: We have here
the greatest of all by the
greatest of all preachers to an audience
of ore and she a woman of dull under
standing. Jesus sits by the well, dust
covered and wear from his morning
walk, and thirsts for water. A woman
comes to the well to draw. 1t is not
the time for frequenting the well, but
this is an immoral woman, and there
is little order in her life. as little re-
gard for hours as for morals. A poor
woman. a heather o%utcast. unlearned
except in evil ways, of a nation low
caste and despised from the Jews
man of damaged reputation and what
was worse, of marred and broken char
acter. This is the other figure at ia
cob's well. Would the great teacher,
who had %unclouded righteousness in
himself, speak to this child of sin and
shame? He loves and pities her be-
cause she is part of the humanity he
came to redeem, not common nor I'M
clean, but illustrious and glorious be-
cause of her alliance with Goa and i'm
mortality.
Jesus exalted womanhood. His in
terview with this Samaritan outcast
marks a new era in the history of wo-
man. He kindly asked her for a drink
of water. and begins a conversation.
tact. He does not bolt any charges
upon her. He does not tell her what
her duty was. Her good, %virtuous
neighbors had often enough reminded
her of that. Christ always respected
the human soul and treated it with
delicacy except when it was false, and
then he blasted it with a thunderbolt,
because for hypocisy there is no rene
dy but a thunderbolt. But the poor,
weak, pitiful, everyday sinner he treat
ed as one treats a sick child. with ten
der touch and cheerful voice.
He begins by telling her a short sto-
ry and seeks to rouse her interest. She
had come to the well in a ~listless ev-
eryday mood, thinking of nothing in
particular, perhaps somewhat cast
down by the long burden of her i'll
regulated life-a dumb soul. She need
ed to be interested and aroused like
so many people who come to church.
1t is useless to try to insert religious
truth or any kind of truth into the
minds of men until they are interest
ed, and interest can often be won by a
story.
Christ also awakened her interest by
asking a favor, by getting her to do
something for him. There is no surer
path to a persons heart, than accept
ing a favor from him. 1t may be abus-
ed but it is true. Mr.. Chas. Lowe, the
biographer of Bismarck, says when
the German troops entered Paris in
VI lulupUul pIpCSSSlOu dlltl lht TlChSh
war, Bismarck rode in with them and
when he came to the triumphal arch,
amid the mob of gloomy on-lookers he
sled a workman scowling at him witha
villainous expression of hate and fumb-
ling in the folds Of his blouse for
something which might have been a
revolver. Turning his chargers head,
Bismarck calmly rode up to the villain
| ous-looking fellow, and in the most
polite n begged a light to his
cigar which had gone out, and the i'm
mediate change in the mans express
ion showed that his malice had been
completely disarmed. So Christ brush
ed away the woman's national preju-
dice and hate by asking a favor at her
hands, and at once stirs her latent
sense of usefulness, awakens the moral
dignity of her nature and kindles her
sense of responsibility. He calls into
action what is good and noble.
Having aroused her interest and at
tention he speaks to her the %grandest
truths ever uttered on this earth. He
arouses her spiritual nature by an
other marvellous touch. He lays his
finger on her conscience. Go call thy
husband" 1t was a summons which
struck down to her conscience. 1t tore
the viel from off her life and unrolled
the blurred and blotted record of her
shameless history. He COY all Its
stain and shame and reads the dark Sc
crets of that wanton life, secrets which
the woman thought were safely hidden
within her own breast.
The woman saw herself, but she did
not want to think of her poor sinful
life, who does? And she takes refuge
in the national controversy. Her IA
theirs had always %worshiped God on
Mt. Gerazim, but the Jews had excom-
municated all Samaritans and said Je-
rusalem was the only place In which to
worship God. Which was right? Je-
sus does not answer her question d.
rectly, but takes a higher standpoint
than that occupied by either Jew or
Samaritan and gives %utterance to some
Of the grandest words ever heard on
this earth eternal words that have
chanted themselves into the faith and
hone of humanity-"God is q spirit,