1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



43 



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Howbeit Jesus suffered bim not, but saith unto 

 him. Go home to ihy friends, and tell how great 

 things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had 

 compassion on thee.— Mark 5: 19. 



HOME, THE CIIRISTIAMZER OF TOE COMMtTNITY. 



f||HE story was recently told of a company of 

 poor children who were taken by the hand of 

 — ' charity from the filth and confinement of 

 their city haunts into the open country. Among 

 their number was a little fellow who had never been 

 beyond the shadows of the great city. The children 

 were taken by train to a huge farm-house. This 

 little fellow was especially astonished at his sur- 

 roundings. Pure air filled the lungs that had been 

 accustomed to the fetid atmosphere of cellar or gar- 

 ret. Bright sunshine played on hillside, or stole 

 through dancing leaves upon soft grass. Instead of 

 the black smoke which hung like a pall over the 

 narrow street of the city in which he lived, white 

 fleecy clouds floated high above his head in a great 

 sea of blue. Flowers everywhere. He could not 

 walk but he stepped on them; and no one scolded 

 him if he did. No one but such a poor half-starved 

 little waif could understand what the first sight of 

 green fields means; what the first breath of pure 

 air means; what the beauty of cloud-flecked sky, or 

 mottled shadows of leaves; what all the beauties of 

 nature are. At an early hour the bell sounded for 

 breakfast. The little fellow was placed at the table, 

 and ate, and ate. When capacity rather than appe- 

 tite was satisfied, he wont out again to look at the 

 wonders of earth and sky. In due time the dinner- 

 bell sounded, and he went in to another full meal. 

 He was greatly surprised when they called him to 

 supper. He had never heard of three meals a day 

 before. After supper the tired little mortal was put 

 into a soft .bed. As the nurse was leaving the room 

 she heard him call to one of the older boys, — 



"Jemmie! Isay, Jcmmie! if they sets out that 'ere 

 table again to-night, you just wake me up; do you 

 hear?" 



He had gotten one brief glimpse into that which 

 most boys enjoy to the full every day— a comfortable 

 home. The long year must di-ag on and find him day 

 after day in the filth and starvation of his city 

 haunts. He will probably grow up to lie and swear 

 and steal. It may be that blacker crimes than 

 these will follow the education which the city is giv- 

 ing him. The question is often asked, " Where do 

 our criminal classes come from?" We generally 

 answer by referring to the hosts that are pouring in- 

 to our country by emigration. But this is only half 

 a truth. We are also educallng criminals. Look 

 over the criminal lists of any city paper, and you 

 will find that a large proportion is made up of chil- 

 dren. From a few papers recently read, the follow- 

 lowing results were gathered: Arrests for dissolute 

 conduct, 10 girls, all under 17, and 5 boys under 14; 

 theft, 10 girls, under 17, and 3 boys, under 15 — one 

 little fellow only five; drunkenness, 12 boys, under 

 14; pickpockets, 2 boys, one 16 and one 13; highway 

 robbery, 3 boys, 16 each ; burglary, 13 boys and girls, 

 under 18; murder, 6 boys, under 18, three of them 

 only 12. How may this stream of corrupt men and 

 women be stopped? We can not dam it up with 

 workhouses and penitentiaries. A bad man is still 

 a bad man, although confined. We can not turn 



this stream from its channels by asylums or hospit- 

 als. It can be stopped only by purifying the foun- 

 tain; viz., the homes of these outcast boys and 

 girls. Sound lungs can not be secured by a week's 

 pure country air and fifty-one weeks of poisonous 

 breath from cellar or sink-hole. Sound morals can 

 never be secured by one day In Sunday-school and 

 si.xdays in the school of vice, of which the parents 

 are teachers. This is no new doctrine. It is the 

 principle on which Christian philanthropy acts. 

 Asylums, hospitals, schools, and Christian services, 

 are of little permanent good, as long as the homes 

 of these classes are the schools of crime. I have re- 

 ferred to this extreme case to bring out this 

 thought; viz., the value of the home as a Christian- 

 izer of the community. 



1. We sustain three distinct relations to each oth- 

 er: Individual relation, family relation, and social 

 relation. By individual relation is meant those as- 

 sociations which have little reference to family or 

 societj', except remotely. The relations of trade in 

 this sense, are individual relations. Goods are 

 bought and sold, with little reference to a man's 

 family or social position. Social relations are those 

 which grow out of the common needs of many. 

 Public schools come from the recognition of the 

 community of a common social want — education 

 for children. Government is only society organ- 

 ized under law. Distinct from these is the family 

 relation. It is peculiar in several respects. Other 

 relations are, in the main, voluntary: those of the 

 family are enforced. Duties come from the acci- 

 dent of birth, which can not be escaped. These 

 family relations also affect us more powerfully than 

 both the others combined. It follows, that each 

 member of a community has more real interest in 

 his neighbor's hom(( than in all else that pertains to 

 him except his moral character. We are speaking of 

 home in relation to the communitj'. There is power 

 in this close organization, which would not exist 

 were the members isolated individuals. A well- 

 organized regiment is much more efficient than a 

 thousand men fighting at random. Law throws its 

 safeguards around the home for the sake of society. 

 The home, although the product of Christian civili- 

 zation, is also a gigantic factor in the progress of 

 that civilization. To some extent, society has a 

 right to say what shall and what shall not be. in each 

 home in the community. 



2. The power of the home as a Christianizer is the 

 thought presented in this text. The best service 

 this new convert could render the Master was in re- 

 turning to his home and telling there the wonderful 

 story of his deliverance. This was Christ's way of 

 reaching one of Ihc worst communities in which he 

 ever preached, through one Christian man, and he 

 was to begin at home. We notice, in the Savior's in- 

 structions, that he was to go home. He had been 

 hiding himself in the filthy caves in which the dead 

 were buried. Men often now-a-days hide themselves 

 in a saloon, or some other vile den, when the Devil 

 gets hold of them. Even Christians occasioaally 

 have the mistaken idea, that that work which is done 

 outside of home is the most acceptable to God. I do 

 not believe that any work will be of great perma- 

 nent value to the community, which is rendered at 

 the neglect of home relipion. A neighbor's children 

 will not probably be converted through the labors of 

 a man who neglects his own. Filial love is God's 

 own golden chain which he has put into our hand to 

 draw our children to Christ. Would he say to any 



