The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-26

sat at his feet without receiving & bless- ing from his sermons" And these friends of the old minister did receive bless ing from every one of his sermons. And they will receive a blessing from every one of the new minister's sermons. As they were friends to the old minister, so they will be friends of the new.
 New Love Versus the Old.
 But there are always some people who think they cannot prove their love for the new minister unless they tell him all the faults of the old. No sooner is the new minister installed than these false friends gather around him. An they will say. T am so glad you are to be our pastor. We have needed you for the last five years. This is the age of young men. Our old pastor was too old He was worn out. He has been dead for the last twenty years and was not con- scious of the fact. The young people did not like him. And then his wife was an invalid. Oh, I am glad you have not sick wife. Then our old pastors children wanted all the offices. His daughter was the head of our Christian Endeavor so- ciety, and his son was usher in the chief aisle, and his sister was the head of our primary department. But everything now is going to be different We have you. and all will be well" Yes: things will be different, but only in name. Young men, you who are about to enter the Christian ministry, always fight shy of the church members who would try to praise you at the expense of the noble men of God who gave the best of their lives to your pull pit before you came to it. If they are untrue to your predecessors they will be untrue to you. I always have my suspi- cions of the man who to show his love and devotion to his second wife, has to ss~.-. Canada thistles and poison ivy upon the grave of his first.
 Would that some people who find so much fault with their old pastors might receive the rebuke which a minister gave to his daughter who was criticisng an absent friendl The daughter was saying her friend was todd" and peculiar" Yes answered the old father, "she cer- tainly is odd a~H peculiar. She is so odd and peculiar C she was never heard to speak i'll of an absent friend.'' l like that. We cannot be untrue to absent friends and at the same time true to those who are by our side. We cannot be untrue to our pastors who are gone and true to those who are now preaching in our pulpits.
 But there is yet another criterion by which you can judge a minister's best friends. They to be numbered among those who do not love their church so
 
 pei duties which are calling them outside of the four walls of that church. They are the Christians who realize that as there is one family living within the four walls of the home so there is church family living within the four walls of the church. They strive to fulfill their ob- lisations not only to their own family and the church family. but to those outside who do not yet know Christ. The church family is a very important family. but It does not represent the whole human race Now, as every father and mother must help care for the wants of their ndigent neghbo so every church family should and must care for the spiritual wants of the great heather outside world There fore the church member who simply says: Let us care for our own church. for our own pulpit and pew and Sunday schoolr' is not true Christian The true church member Is the one who has the mission ary spirit and who realizes his duty to China and Africa and Persia and India as well as to his own city and neighbor- hood. Yet it Is at this vital missionary point that so many of our would he min ister's best friends fall.
 An Eastern Parable.
 It is only by our spiritual scattering that we can gather in, and 1t Is only by laying down our lives that we can save them. An old eastern parable goes thus: