532 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



since I found myself getting into a troubled 

 state of mind because of something tliat I 

 imagined might be. I put it away again and 

 again. I went to work at s^omething that 

 would take my thoughts to another subject. 

 This answered for a while, but back it came 

 again. I prayed that God would deliver me 

 from the hideous thing; but it required con- 

 stant prayer until the time came when I could 

 ascertain whether my fancies were real, or 

 whether it was only fancy. The event proved 

 that it was only fancy. In this case I had 

 been borrowing trouble — borrowing indeed. Mr. 

 Comstock told us that, when vilo pictures have 

 once been placed in this little picture-gallery of 

 the soul, it is not always an easy matter to get 

 the picture down and put somn other one in its 

 place. The old one has a fashion of showing 

 through; and if you look intently where it used 

 to hang, the lineaments of the old picture have 

 a fashion of coming out stronger and stronger, 

 like developing a photograph. You can al- 

 most resurrect an old and dead picture if you 

 look where it used to be, and long for its 

 presence again. Nowadays we have a way of 

 making pictures by simply pressiuff a button. 

 Evil imaginations are ahead of the Kodak, and 

 you do not have to " press the button " at all. 

 You simply think the evil thought, and ther^ is 

 the picture, more vivid and real— yes. and a 

 thousand times more pernicious — than the real 

 thing itself. I am not quoting Comstock just 

 now. I am thinking of some of my own experi- 

 ences. Imagination not only makes new pic- 

 tures, but clothes vice so as to make it look like 

 virtue. Imagination, with Satan in the back- 

 ground, will make you think your worst enemy 

 on earth is your best friend. Imagination, 

 with Satan out of sight in the background, will 

 take a very commonplace person, and he 

 will make that person look to your distorted 

 vision like a seraph. Y^'our imagination, if not 

 held by the reins of reason, may induce you to 

 bow down in the dust, and worship a piece of 

 humanity not only commonplace, but vile and 

 deceitful. If you have not had any experience 

 in this line you may have before you die: and 

 remember your old friend A. I. Root warned 

 you. You need not delude yourself bv saving 

 you are too old, and have too many gray hairs 

 for any such youthful folly. Satan laughs at 

 gray hairs, and well he may; for some of his 

 veriest dupes are found among those who are 

 surely " oUl enough " to know better. 



It is a little strange that men right hpre in 

 America, in this nineteenth century, should 

 lend themselves to Satan's work along in the 

 line that Anthony Comstock has been fighting. 

 This form of iniquity seems to start up here 

 and there, and often where least expected. No 

 matter how many are caught and sput to the 

 penitentiary for disseminating vile literature, 

 the thing has to be continually fought. Mr. 

 Comstock has caused the arrest of nearly 2000 

 different persons within the 22 years that he 

 has been at work. The mails are now so care- 

 fully guarded that it is dangerous business for 

 these people to undertake to mail any of their 

 hellish trash. 1 have been wondering whether 

 it is possible that the only incentive to this 

 traffic should be the money they get from it. 

 Years ago. pernicious books would get into the 

 schools. They would be passed about from one 

 boy to another, and sometimes the vile thing 

 would go almost through the school before it 

 was stooped. Fathers and toothers used to be 

 (at least some of them) stupid and indifferent 

 about these things, compared to what they are 

 now. Not long ago a man in one of the streets 

 of New York was handing some packages to 

 children as they were on their way home from 

 school. A little girl received one. She read on 



the outside, " Don't open this until you are oft' 

 alone by yourself." But the Devil made a 

 blunder that lime. Keen as he usually is, he 

 got hold of a little girl who had the wrong kind 

 of bringing up for his schemes. She marched 

 straight home to her mother and held up the 

 packnge. '"Mamma, a man gave this to me. 

 What does it mean?" I can imagine how 

 mamma's eves blazed as she opened the packet 

 enough to divine its meaning. She replied, 

 '• Go with me this minute and help me to hunt 

 up that man. He is a thief and a robber. He 

 is worse than a mad dog let loose." The child 

 had faith in her mother, and the two started 

 out. They found him still at his work. A 

 policeman arrested him, Anthony Comstock 

 was sent for. and the man is now serving out a 

 sentence of ei(7M years in the penitentiary. May 

 Crod be praised that we have little girls who 

 will go straight to their mothers with every 

 thing of this sort. May he be praised again for 

 such mothers, and for Anthony Cojustock. A 

 few years ago it was customary for agents of 

 this kind to collect the names and addresses of 

 schoolchildren; but the mails are now handled 

 with such keen scrutiny that they have about 

 given it up. They confine their operations 

 mostly to such boys as they can find in the 

 saloons. Intemperance and impurity go hand 

 in hand, arm in arm; and let me say to the few 

 good people who defend tobacco, that Anthony 

 Comstock gained the fierce hatred of almost 

 the entire cigar-trade. Do you know why? It 

 was because he meddled with their business. 

 These dens of infamy had found out that a vile 

 picture could be put into a box of cigars, and 

 neither the man who smoked the cigars nor the 

 man who sold them would '" squeal." Why, go 

 into any place where they sell cigars, and look 

 at the pictures on the boxes. Do you want 

 your boy to see such pictures ? Do you want 

 that litt^le picture-gallery within his pure un- 

 sullied heart embellished with such things as 

 these? Do you want his undeveloped childish 

 imagination to begin feeding on things of this 

 sort? Most fathers look back and remember 

 at least times in their lives when they felt the 

 baneful, blasting, withering effects of evil 

 imaginations in this direction.* 



Last, but not least, every Christian knows 

 that this sort of sin is the worst foe to spirituali- 

 ty. A boy may be on the eve of giving his 

 heart to Christ— nay, he may be studying for 

 the ministry; and one single vile picture, or one 

 indecent book, may kill out all thoughts of 

 nobler and higher things. Satan is saying, 

 even to-day. '" AH these things will I give thee 

 if thou wilt fall down and worship me." And, 

 O dear friends! the saddest part of it all is, 

 that many of our promising young men have 

 accepted the bargain. They have, in consider- 

 ation of what Satan has pictured to their 

 imagination, given up all, and sold their souls 

 to him. Yes. sold is the word — sold, body and 

 soul; sold to everlasting death and ruin. 



There is a hopeful thing about all this, how- 

 ever. The affairs of our State and nation are 

 surely getting, at least to a certain extent, into 



*Seed of this sort, sown in the heart at a cer- 

 tain age. takes root and grows with amazing rapidi- 

 ty. " Whatsoever ii man soweth, //(((f sliall he also 

 reap." And this is (rrn/^/iy true of vile things that 

 once get a hold of the youthful imagination. The 

 crop comes, too, oftentimes, in an incredibly short 

 space of time. Do you know where tlie reaping is 

 done ? In the county Infirmarj- and in the insane- 

 asylum. Go visit institutions of that kind; make 

 inquiries in regard to the inmates; and when you 

 get down to tlie facts you will find that a great ma- 

 .iority of the occupants have come there through 

 feeding the imaijinatloii, at an early age, on this 

 very trash that Antiiony Comstock is waging such 

 determined warfare against. 



