The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-11
BY THE REV. FRA


this sermon the preacher shows the
IL brighter side Of human experience
and especially the rewards and encour-
agements that gladden. the hearts OF
those who are loving and helpful to their
fellow men. The text is Acts xviii, =
And the barbarous people showed us no
little kindness"
A great book is yet to be written under
the caption THE Bright Side of For
eign Missonary's Life" When famous
missionaries like Bishop William Taylor
used to visit my fathers home when
was a boy l would stand afar off and
look at them as the Florentine people
used to watch the passing Dante After
the famous Italian author returned to
| the city of his youth his neighbors al
ways said when he appeared upon the
streets, There goes the man who has
been in hell" So for years l felt that
| a foreign missionary field was such an
| inferno as Dante described. ! felt that 1t
was a place inhabited by savages and
| fierce cannibals. l felt that when a man
| like DR.. Duff or William Carey or David
| Livingstone decided to go to India or
| Persia or Africa or to the Fiji Islands he
| went to live among monsters Missiona-
| RIGS cut adrift from all heart affections.
| They forever separated themselves from
| the humanities and the kindnesses and
| the loves of their fellow men. But after
| | took a journey around the world and
visited a few of the great missionary
! stations | had a complete change in rel
| erence to my ideas of missionaries sac
| rifces. True, the missionary has to give
up many things for Christ, but what he
| gives up is small compared to the Joys
| which he has in missionary service. The
| faithful foreign missionary has the same
kind of kindnesses shown to him in MS
missionary labors as the home pastor has
by his congregation which surrounds him
week by week and year by year. The
only difference between the work OF the
home pastor and that of the missionary
TO the heather is that the one is settled
minister over one pulpit in clvlllzed
land, while the foreign missionary labors
in virgin soil, and like Hunter Corbett or
Bishop Thoburn, is travelling evangel-
ist with many native pastors under his
control, of whose work he is superin-
His Greatest Pleasure.
Though the foreign missionary may
have many joys, ] can think of not one
greater than his opportunity of travelling
from place to place to meet and commune
with the Christian native workers VINO
have been laboring in Christs vineyard
during his absence have heard my
uncle the late Rev. John Talmage the
famous missionary to Annoy, China, tell
how the native pastors and the Chinese
Christian workers would come out to
greet him when he took his missionary
tours. They would come forth with
smiles and gospel salutations. They
would send messengers everywhere to
tell their absent members that their splr-
ltual leader was coming. Then these
Christian workers would gather about the
missionary and tell him how the church
was getting along and how many new
converts were made and what glorious
revival they had been having. My uncle
John would turn to my father and say:
de Witt, their greetings make regular
Christian love feast. oh, these missiona-
nv tours are mighty trips to me for spir-
ltual inspiration When see what some
of those poor native Christian workers
are willing to do for Christ it does seem
as though | could never do enough for
the Master Such was one of the joys
think Paul, the great foreign mission
airy, had when he was on his missionary
! tours.
Whenever Paul thought of going to
Ephesus or Philippi or Galatia or Thes-
salonica or to the churches of Laodicea
| or Cornth ! think he began to say to
| himself: ooh, If | can only take that trip
| shall be able to preach the gospel to
thousands who have never heard It
preached and I shall also meet the con-
secrated men and women of God who are
laboring in those churches! Yes they
will all be there They will greet me with
their prayers and happy smiles. They
will tell me about the successful cam
paigns for Christ in which they have been
engaged. I can already see them gather-
ing around me and hear the glorious
! talks we will have after the preaching of
the day is over. We shall meet together
| in some upper chamber, as Christ went
off again and again in a quiet place with
| his disciples alone to teach them and to
have Christian communion" Such. be-
| lieve were the joyful anticipations with
which the mighty Paul, the foreign mis-
slonary, went out upon his missionary
tours.
Kindness From Barbarians.
Such, l believe was one of the joys
which We're thrilling his heart when on
his last journey to Rome. He knew he
was to preach Christ under the shadow
of Caesars palace. He knew that he
would be welcomed in Rome by the saints
who were living in Caesars household.
Yes, Phoebe and Priscilla and Aqua, the
women who labored with him in the
gospel were there. Epanenetus was there.
! ana AndrOncuS ana Junla ana AtnpnaS
and Urbane and Stachys and many other
| Christian workers were all i'm Rome. He
| distinctly tells this in the last chapter
| of his Epistle to the Romans. They were
all there and ready to greet him. "Oh,"
| L think l hear him say as he is pacing
up and down the Alexandria corn ship:
| What a glorious time we shall have
! togetherl Why cannot this boat have the
| wings of bird instead of heavy keel,
! that our reunion might come the sooner?''
| But hardly had he said these words than
| the Mediterranean euroclydon blew up
and the ship was tossed about by the
| hurricane, and at last 1t was wrecked
upon the island of Melta, which we call
| Malta. There the vessel was destroyed
among the strange people. who knew
nothing of Paul; neither did he know OF
them. Then Paul writes the words of my
| text. "And the barbarous people Showed
us no little kindness" He might natural
ly have expected his friends to show him
] kindness. But here he records the fact
! as grateful surprise that the barbarians
| were Just as kind as friends could have
been to the shipwrecked crew and pas
sengers and prisoners.
oh" | said when | read these words.
chow like Paul's journey to Jerusalem
to preach the gospel unto the Romans are
our gospel journeys in life. They are sur
| prises all through" We naturally eX-
| pect the household of faith to greet
us cordially but the barbarians are kind