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GLEANINCS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



hension; but a great part, if not the greater 

 part of the blame, lay on myself. I knew I was 

 Inconsistent. I knew in my heart that I de- 

 mandfd more of other people than I was willing 

 to conform to myself. Twenty years ago we 

 used to hear things preached from the pulpit 

 that we do not hear now — at least. J do not hear 

 th(!m now. I think that some ministers of the 

 gospel in those times needlessly and foolishly 

 exposed themselves to charges of inconsistency, 

 that unbelievers who possessed a pretty good 

 share of common sense were not slow to take 

 up. The mature Christians among our readers 

 perhaps see. without telling, the fallacy in the 

 above quotation; but I firmly believe there are 

 many — yes, Christians — whose faith is weak, 

 who may even yet be misled by such sophis- 

 try; and I am pretty sure, too, there are many 

 boys and girls who do not stop to consider, or 

 who have not been taught to consider, the 

 great blunder our poor friend is making. Let 

 us look into it a little. 



Probably all of you have read the account, at 

 least somewhere in print, of the wonderfully 

 heroic way in which this good woman faced and 

 met her death. The writer takes the ground 

 that her prayers were unanswered; and he also 

 takes it for granted that she prayed only that 

 she might be delivered from the terrible scorch- 

 ing flames If you will read the account again 

 on page 829, Nov. 1, you will see that nothing 

 of the kind is said. Very likely, at the outset 

 she prayed for deliverance from that awful 

 trial, just as our Savior prayed in the garden, 

 before his coming crucifixion; but his prayer 

 ended, as you remember, with the words, ''Thy 

 will, not mine, be done." We know this woman 

 was a Christian, and we have very good reason 

 to believe thai her prayer was of a similar 

 nature. The Christian whose burden of prayer 

 is, that God will spare his life, or give him long 

 life, is no Christian at all; and the person who 

 expects that, because he belongs to a church, 

 he is to have a charmed life, and be spared 

 from the accidents and emergencies that fall to 

 the general lot of mankind, is worse than no 

 Christian at all. He is a bundle of selfish big- 

 otry. The whole Bible is full of warnings that 

 he who takes up the cro*s must bear grievous 

 trials. You remember Dr. Watts' little hymn- 

 Am I a soldier of the cross ? 



There is no Christianity at all without bearing 

 crosses and trials— ye«. terrible trials; and if a 

 Christian is not a sofdicr, and a brave one at 

 that, he is not a Christian. When the people 

 were frantic because they began to see they 

 were powerless to save her, she, like one of the 

 martyrs of old. exhorted and encouraged them. 

 She said to them, " I am a Christian." Suppose 

 she had blamed them at this terrible moment, 

 and thrown reproach back into their faces, that 

 they were letting a woman die in that horrible 

 manner. I beg pardon for suggesting such a 

 thing; but I do it to show you what a glorious 

 thing it is to have a Christian's hope, that goes 

 not only through life, but carries us through 

 death, and such a terrible death as that. We 

 have every reason to believe she used common 

 sense as well as faith in that supreme last mo- 

 ment. Site recognized the fact that those brave 

 men would have given their lives to save her, 

 if it had been of any avail: but it would have 

 done no good; it would only have made other 

 victims for the devouring flames. As her lips 

 were seen to move in prayer, there can hardly 

 be a question but that it was for grace and 

 strength to go through the terrible ordeal. Our 

 Savior prayed in a similar way; and when his 

 physical torture was at its greatest height, he 

 gave voice to that plaintive wail, "My God! 

 my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" We 



read in the account. "Even the fury of the 

 flames that wreathed her limbs and blistered 

 and curled the white flesh of her arms was 

 powerless to provoke a scream." Who shall 

 say her prayer was unanswered? Why, it 

 seems to me that it must be evident to every 

 spectator that grace from on high was given 

 her in a most wonderful manner to bear the 

 trial and a degree of suffering that perhaps falls 

 to the lot of not more than one in ten thousand 

 or more of human beings. "A wild groan burst 

 simultaneously from the lips of the spectators, 

 and strong men wept;" but not a word was 

 wrung from that brave woman. The closing 

 messages to her husband and family were given 

 quietly and with composure. Did her faith 

 waver? Surely not. Who knows what precious 

 passages came to her mind in those last mo- 

 ments? "Though he slay me, yet will I trust 

 him." The account of this heroic way of meet- 

 ing death speaks volumes to the world for the 

 Christian religion. My good friend, how much 

 would it be worth to i/o?t to be able to die in 

 that way ? Now, pardon me for just suggest- 

 ing the effect on the world, or the effect on 

 humanity, had she, in her last moments, taken 

 up with the doctrine expressed by that unbe- 

 liever. He says, "Did God heed her cry?" 

 And then he adds, " No. no! Has he ever heed- 

 ed the cries of his children in their hour of 

 need ?" And. again, he takes the responsibili- 

 ty upon himself of saying. " No. The long 

 record of horrible deaths which he has inflicted 

 upon his ' children ' by fire and flood and storm, 

 by starvation and plague, answer, ' No, a thou- 

 sand times no!'" Now, suppose this woman's 

 faith had deserted her in her last moments; 

 suppose that, under the agony of such a trial, 

 she had been tempted to complain of God, and 

 had said to that crowd that the Christian 

 religion proved of no avail, and that, as our 

 friend expressed it, prayer is futile. Would 

 such a confession have been comforting to the 

 men ? Would it have made those strong men 

 feel better? Would its tendency have been to 

 decrease crime and selfishness and greed 

 throughout our land ? Why, the very worst one 

 among you, I am sure, will say. to use the lan- 

 guage of our friend. " No, a thousand times no." 

 I think I can, without question, say the verdict 

 of the crowd would have been. " We are glad 

 she died a Christian. If Christianity helps one 

 to pass bravely through an ordeal like that, let 

 us have it, and let the world have it." Another 

 thing, I hardly believe one individual in that 

 crowd thought of blaming Ood for that acci- 

 dent, or even thought of saying that God in- 

 flicted these things upon us. We have read of 

 martyrs dying at the stake for the cause of 

 Christ. I feel sure this woman was a model 

 Christian martyr up to the present day. She 

 has been showing us how to live — especially 

 that little Sunday-school class away oflf in her 

 York wState home; and when the time came she 

 was able to show strong men how to die; and, 

 if I am not mistaken, the great railroad com- 

 panies are moved now as they have never been 

 before, to consider this matter of banishing fire 

 entirely — at least from passenger cars. The 

 mechanical progress that has been made, and 

 which was evidenced at the recent World's Fair, 

 indicates that we as a people are equal to the 

 task of having our cars warmed without fire. 

 If by steam, some arrangements must be made 

 like the automatic brakes, so that the steam is 

 instantly shut oft' as soon as an accident occurs 

 or is imminent. And electricity should come to 

 the front and take the place of oil-lamps for 

 lighting the cars. Mrs. Van Deusen has not 

 died in vain. She died as did her Master, that 

 we might live in both a physical and spiritual 

 sense. 



