The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-02-15

spirit of Christian testimony might be unloosened and begin to speak for Christ in the homes. I am not now alluding to the Christian testimony which ought to be heard among our children by our own firesides I am referring to the word of gospel invitation, which should be ad- dressed to the sinful and goddess homes in the midst of every Christian communi- ty.
 Present Condition.
 A noted southern educator some time ago bluntly said: Tt is often far easier for a man to sign a thousand dollar check for foreign missions than 1t is for him to speak a Christian word of en- eouragement to the bootblack boy clean ing his shoes on the street corner. That is a very wise saying. But l carry the principle still further. It is often far easier for a Christian lady to get up church fair in the interests of foreign missions or to read a paper before that society upon the Filipinos or the Chinese or Smese than 1t is to go to the family which lives in the fiat above her and ask them if they love the Lord Jesus Christ. Ought such a condition ever to exist ? It is about time for some of us to learn to sing with the right spirit Bishop He- ber's grand old gospel hymn;
 If you cannot cross the ocean
 And the heather lands explore,
 You can find the heather nearer
 You can help them at your door.
 My brother living in Chicago, do you not know that there are within radius of three blocks of your house scores and scores of families who never hear the name of Jesus spoken In their homes except in blasphemy? Do you not know that within a radius of six blocks of this church, every Sunday night while l am preaching, scores and scores of young women and men pass in and out of the fatal doors of the saloons and places oi evil resort? Some of us are foolish enough to think that the haunts Of Sa- tan are open only six days of the week that on the seventh day Satan rests and shuts up shop and says to his hirelings | My agents and servants, let us allow | God to open his churches on the Sabbath and we will rest" No. The churches may ] be opened one day of the week, but the l Satanic haunts are never shut. Night and | day the busy fingers of are reaching, al
 ways reaching, after more victims. Like ] the ouicksands of the far east, this Sa- 1 tanic destroyer keeps swallowing down 1 the unfortunate and he never seems te i have enough. More, more, morev con- | tinually cry the evil spirits. Give us | more human blood to quench our un- | quenchable thirsti'
 | Now, my Christian friends, while I re- | joice in foreign missions and would moi l abate your interest in them, l want to ask you this pertinent question; Do you think we should allow our concern fof souls 10000 miles away to monopolize our
 efforts? While we are seeking them dc not let us overlook the danger of those
 who are living in sin by our own door, Do you think that the Samoans and the Australians and the Maoris and African negroes should be any more precious in Gods sight and in ours than the man or the woman about whose personality you never care until you see black crape hanging upon the opposite door? Oh, man, if you Mad the true love of Jesus Christ in your heart, you would act differ- ently toward your unknown neighbor. You would enter his home for Jesus Christ's sake with at least the same in- tensity as a life insurance agent hunts up men and women for his insurance company. You would enter the stran- gers home, near to your door, with at least the same earnestness as If you had to sell few books in order to buy your babies some bread. No man can truly love his God with all his heart and soul and mind unless at the same time he loves his neighbor as himself, and no Christian man can truly love his neigh bor unless he is personally interested in his neighbor's eternal salvation.
 Save the Nearby Sinners.
 Would that we might be willing to enter the homes of our neighbors' in the service