the doors of his blessed kingdom opened to all. It required no magic
sesame of race respectability to throw back these gates of pardon and
hope. Sin must be left outside, but the sinner of every race and tribe
was welcomed to all the privileges of this kingdom. We now see the
wisdom and the divinity of our Lord's course.

Had these marveling disciples had their way, the sect of the
Christians would have been added to the sects of the Herodians and the
Sadducees, and been buried in the same grave centuries ago. The voice
that talked with this Samaritan woman is heard round the globe now,
and every century only adds greater authority to its divine utterance;
and it is heard because it spoke with this despised Samaritan woman.
Our Lord did not ignore this race prejudice; he rebuked it. And so
these timid disciples, realizing only the temporary danger that
threatened, marveled that he talked with this woman. God pity them!
But how human they were. So to-day, in India, the missionaries of the
cross, true to their Lord's great example, talk with pariah and
Brahmin, and welcome them both to equal privileges in the kingdom of
his grace--and men marvel. And so in Alabama and South Carolina, the
missionaries of the cross, true to the same divine example, talk with
black and with white, and welcome them both to the same privileges in
this kingdom--and even some timid disciples marvel. But the principles
of this divine kingdom do not change; the Lord of that kingdom, who
talked with the sinful, weary, despised Samaritan woman, would, if
here in bodily presence now, talk with the sinful, weary, despised
black woman, no matter how much his worldly-wise disciples might
marvel. His kingdom is built upon this eternal truth of human
brotherhood, and it will endure because it is. Nothing short of this
is of his kingdom, but will crumble to dust.