44 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Jan. 



of us, if, in enthusiastic love, we leaped down into 

 tlie boat beside him and sought to go with him to 

 other and strange fields of labor, " Go home to thy 

 friends, and tell them how great things the Lord 

 hath done for thee"? For one, I have little hope 

 for the Cnristian work in any community that fol- 

 lows public exhortation with fretfulness and impa- 

 tience at home. How shall we save our boys from 

 the saloons ? I'y making home so bright and cheer- 

 ful and Christian, that they do not want to go. Does 

 this method sometimes fail? Ihe oppusite method 

 almost always fails. There should be hours of each 

 day, and days of each year, sacred to home and chil- 

 dren. This is possible in the busiest lives. 



But this man was not only to go home, but he was 

 to go home clean. Absolute purity is another pre- 

 cious stone which must be put into the foundation 

 of any home which proves a Thristianizer to the 

 communit.v. The Devil must be kept out or cast out 

 of father and mother, or he will bo pretty sure to get 

 into the children. This man did not go home, rav- 

 ing as he came out of the tombs, nor surly and sour: 

 conversion had cleansed him from these vices. 



Why is it that so many men are genilemcn on (>ur 

 streets, and suily grumblers at hfime? "Why is it 

 that so many women are ladies in society, but fret- 

 ful complainers at home? Why are so many boys 

 and girls respectful to teachers and friends, and so 

 seldom truly courttous to father and mother? Is it 

 because we all forget so often, that the most etilcient 

 way to save the community and w(uid to Christ is by 

 doing our utmost to save those whom God has cspe- 

 ciallj' committed to our care in our homes? Every 

 man, every woman, every child, is a preacher. Each 

 one preaches a daily sermon to the congregation of 

 home. That scimon should have for its text, Luce; 

 for its introduction. Luce; for its proposition, Luce; 

 for its application. Love. Such a sermon needs no 

 music of choir to impress its truth; no sounding 

 bell beneath gilded dome need call worshipers to lis- 

 ten. The first church which God ever planted was 

 — a home. The church in which God's Son preached 

 for thirty yt ars was home. The church to which 

 Christ sent this first missionary amcng the Gada- 

 renes was liome. The chuich in which jou and I 

 preach with surer results than from pulpit cr pray- 

 er-meeting or street, is home, home, home. If your 

 life is pure from every stain, that Ecrnicu will tell; 

 if it is impure, bitter, careless, or fietful, probably 

 no amount of outside work will balance the evil of 

 that daily sermon. 



This man went home. He went home clean, and, 

 lastly, he went home reverent. "Tell them how 

 great things the Lord hath done for thee." Rever- 

 ence was to be a mark of this change in his life. 

 The lack of reverence is one of the great dangers to 

 our nation. We sometimes attribute this lack of 

 reverence to the inlluence of Young America; but, 

 my friends, Old America is also to blame for it. 

 Flippant disregard for those things which are held 

 sacred by good men and women is ruinous to the 

 young. It matters not what a man's belief may be, 

 if he has any real interest in the purity of the 

 young, he will treat with respect that which is held 

 sacred by the virtuous. Any home which proves it- 

 self a Christ ianizer must have its corner-stone laid 

 in veneration. Anything that destroys this in the 

 young, tends to ruin the home, and to overthrow 

 one of the most potent forces for the civilization of 

 the world. This poor restored demoniac told at 

 bome the simple story of his healing and conver- 



sion. What was the result? Still keeping to the 

 simple story of Christ's rt&toring power, with rev- 

 erent love he published in all Dccapolis how great 

 things the Lord had donefor him. The story spread. 

 Other hearts felt its power. It found its way into 

 other homes until, through that whole region, men 

 marveled at the wonderful deliverance. All this the 

 result of telling the simple storj' of one's own con- 

 version, beginning with those of bis own home. 



My friends, is the religion of our Lord promoted 

 by the inlluence of each Christian home in our com- 

 munity? Is every Christian family .tn organized 

 force for bringing Christ to other hearts? Is it pos- 

 sible that Christ might say to some of us who, in 

 mistaken zeal, are forgetting these duties, and fol- 

 lowing him in more public places, "Go home to 

 thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord 

 hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on 

 thee"? The only hope which I have that Christian 

 work will be carried vn permanently in any commu- 

 nity comes iu connection with Christian homes. 

 Every Christian home has its family altar. What a 

 power these are in the c immunity! It has its sym- 

 pathies and sorrows. Il<jw these open the heart for 

 Christian work I It has its guests, frequently not 

 Christians. What opportunities for exhibiting be- 

 fore them the influence of Christ over hearts in 

 every-day life ! AVho can begin to measure the influ- 

 ence of trulj' godii' homes in Christianizing a com- 

 muuity? The entire influence of this newly con- 

 verted man wool i probably have been lost had he 

 regretfully i-efused to begin his humble Christian 

 woik at 7,'oHie. 



I suppose you liave roumloiit, dear i'riends, 

 that liie abcjve was from another pen Ihaii 

 my own, ere tliis. It is a sermon i beggeil 

 from the dear friend who points out to us 

 here in Medina tlic way of everlasting^ life 

 each iSabLalh. It was 30 emphatically a 

 Itonu' sermon, 1 begged it for Otir Homes. If 

 it has gone home, in its mission, into your 

 hearts and homes, thank God for such an 

 earnest woiker as tlie Reverend C. J. Kyder. 

 Well, there comes most oi)portunely just 

 now a word on the same subject, away from 

 the Pacihc Coast. Many of you know al- 

 ready our friend who writes it. There is a 

 little patch of alfalfa right close to our build- 

 ing that makes such a vigorous growth eve- 

 ry time we mow the tops off, 1 can well feel 

 the force of his powerful illustration there. 

 Listen : — 



MOKAL, REFORM, AND THE DANCE-nOUSES. 



Editor Kern Count !j Rejmhlican: -Sin,—l am glad 

 to see by vour issue of the 10th ultimo, that the peo- 

 ple have formed a Moral Reform Association ; for it 

 IS, of all things, the one most needed. But the ope- 

 rations of f-uch associations in years gone by have 

 not been nearly so etheit,'nt as we might desire; they 

 have, in fact, been notoriouslj'deticient in saving so- 

 ciety from the eflects of immorality, else we would 

 have much more improvement to-etay; and, as one 

 citizen interested in the consummation of moral ro- 

 form, I would beg the privilege of calling attention 

 to the fact that nothing comes without a cause; no 

 tree, of good or evil, springs up without the seed and 

 conditions. Therefore, as the Association has been 

 formed because of (and erected its batteries against) 

 the dance-houses, I would ask: Will It not be best — 

 yes, imperatively necessary, in order to insure suc- 

 cess—to look to the cause, to go to the root of the 

 matter? Constant mowing may reduce the number 

 of blossoms in an alfalfa held, but it will not eradi- 

 cate the trouble. You will continue to have crop 

 after crop, of hay and blossoms, to take off so long as 

 you keep the roots there, and supply them with nec- 

 essary nourishment. Now, is not the community do- 



