The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-06

try and talk With tne Outcasls Dy the Samaritan well, who are willing-oh, so willing-to receive the gospel II we only go to them In Christs name? Like the Samaritan woman, have not the greatest sinners believed in Christ and sometimes become the greatest of his disciples and martyrs? Have not the Peters who de- nied him thrice and the Pauls who were once the greatest prosecutors Of his fol- lowers been willing to seal their testi- monv for Christ with their lifeblood? Who was Richard Baxter, who wrote Saints Rest?" Once a notorious sinner. Who was John Bunyan the dreamer of immor- tai dreams? Once a notorious sinner. Who was Father Taylor the great sailor preacher of Boston? Once notorious sinner Who were Harry Munroe and Jerry McAuley and Peter Cartwright and John Somerville and John B. Gough2 All once notorious sinners An, 1t is worth while for us to take a long journey if we can only send forth woman of Samaria'' as a messenger of Jesus Christ. It is worth while to go long distances aye, a very long distance-if like the good Ananias, we can only say to the chief of sinners, Brother Saul. the Lord. even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost 1t is far easier for Jesus Christ to save seventy devied sinner who knows that he is all wrong than to save so-called ''respec- table" sinner who thinks that he is all right
 Christ was the Saviour of the social out cast at the Samaritan well. Yet the strange fact remains that most Christian evangelsts seem to act upon the suppo- sition that it is easier to save the so called little sinner than the big. We seem to be unwilling to reach out after the outcasts. MT. Beecher in one of his sermons tells how a reformed criminal, an eX-convict who had been a counter feiter, once came to him in complete dis couragement MT. Beecher," said he. the good people will not have anything to do with me. I seem to receive sym pathy from none but the worst of folks Oh, ye workers of Jesus carry the bread of life" to those who know they are hun gered and water of life to those who know they are athirst! Seek the seventy deviled social outcasts down by the Sama- ritan well.
 Ecclesiastical Prejudice.
 Another reason why Christ must needs go through Samaria' was that he wanted to reprove ecclesiastical and religious prejudice. The disciples of John the Baptist and of Jesus were antagonistic and jealous of each other, just as the Episcopalians and the Puritans were Dlt ter during the third year of the Plymo dth settlement. They were bitter in the same way that the Established Church and the Methodists were bitter against each other during John Wesey's life. They were bit ter as the Baptists and the Presbyterians were bitter against each other in this country 100 years ago. The disciples of John the Baptist angrily declared that John had baptized more followers than Jesus Christ, while the followers of Jesus angrily replied that Christ had baptized more disciples than John. It was in order to stop this bitterness that Jesus left Judaea and started north toward Lake Galilee and went by the way of Samaria. Christ was ready to do almost anything to stop internal dissensions among those who would ultimately accept him as their Savious and their Christ. Cannot we all realize that no church can rightly accom- plish a sanctified glorious work for the Master unless that church has complete gospel harmony within it's own ranks?
 Absolutely necessary is it for Christian people to love one another before they can as a church welcome the man of the world into their midst with the "ever- lasting peace of the gospel" And yet, my brother, there are scores and hundreds
  tically source of dissension to the world instead of Christian harmony. They are rent and torn into factions by interal strife. The Young Peopl's society is pull ing against the session; the session is find- ing fault with the board of trustees! the Ladies Aid society is sull1ing because its members do not like the mislster's wife; the choir loft Is in open mutiny be- cause the minister will not let the quartet sing as much as they want Instead of the Christian people of the church getting together and praying for each other and trying to help each other for the good of the church they are now magnifying each othersfa s and minifying each others virtues.
 Danger of Small Evils.
 Want of gospel harmony in a church, although it be composed of only a long series of little frictions and disturbances, will after awhile suck out the lifes blood and kill the usefulness of a church. In- deed, the little church disturbances, like the little sins of life, are more to be dread ed than the great church tornadoes, which may arise and subside in a day. Major Waddell, in his book of travels, once H. lustrated the infinite damage which multitudinous collection of small evils may accomplish. In the Teester valley of the Himalayas he fo1n5 a small leeeh. no thicker than a knitting needle. But though very small. this little loech was a pest As an enemy of man and beast it was reaching forth for its animal vic- tins from every twig and leaf and blade of grass No sooner would it touch your flesh than 1t drove in its little lance and began sucking out the lifeblood. That little leech. though small, had literally depopulated that valley of every beast and bird and reptile. The huge elephan- tine monsters and the striped and furred tigers as well as the small rabbits and the graceful lawns, had fled before it's attacks. So In church work, the little fric- tions, the lite bitterness, the little fault findings" like the the fatal leeches of the Teester valley. can destroy the spiritual life of any church. Christian friends. ns with Christ when he took his Samaritan journey, pray hard, sacrifice, plead, apolo- gize, overlook fancied insult do anything and everything in your church family that