1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



503 



Our Homes. 



And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember me 

 when thou comest into thy kingrdom. — Luke 33:43. 



May the Holy Spirit direct and guide me, and 

 give me grace and wisdom while 1 try to unfold 

 the thought that has been in my mind for some 

 days past. I have been assured by many kind 

 friends during these years past that I have a 

 peculiar faculty for making myself understood, 

 especially on some theme where I am greatly 

 interested, and I hope and believe the thought 

 that is before me now interests me more than 

 all things else; in fact. I hope it is the great 

 thought and theme of my life. Our text gives 

 a hint of it. Let me recall the circumstances : 



Two thieves, malefactors or murderers they 

 may have been, were being punished for their 

 crimes. In olden times, one manner of punish- 

 ment in some countries was to nail the criminal 

 fast to a cross of wood. The nails or spikes 

 were driven through his hands and feet. The 

 cross was then set in its place, and he was left 

 there to die slowly by the most excruciating 

 torture. We are told that sometimes the vic- 

 tims remained alive on the cross two or three 

 days. We have not time now to inquire why 

 in that benighted age they thought torture a 

 necessary part of legal punishment. At the 

 same time, Jesus was condemned to die, and he 

 was to be crucified with the malefactors. In 

 fact, the Old-Testament prophecy tells us he 

 was to be classed with malefactors, as we read 

 in Mark L5: 38, where the writer refers to Isaiah 

 .53:13, where it says, "He was numbered with 

 the transgressors." At that time, as at present, 

 it was customary for people to go long distances 

 to see a man put to death. A few days ago I 

 saw in one of the papers a notice that some- 

 where in the South, where a man was to be 

 publicly executed, people came from so many 

 miles that the crowd went away up into the 

 thousands. This was the case at the crucifix- 

 ion; and the sad part of that awful scene — at 

 least the sad part of it to me— is that so few 

 comprehended or cared to comprehend what 

 the offense was that had been committed. You 

 know how poor Pilate stumbled and bungled, 

 and finally in a weak evasive way sanctioned 

 putting the Savior to death. In order that it 

 might be understood, and givp the whole trans- 

 action a semblance of fairnes>j, it was custom- 

 ary to nail a lettered board on the cross, right 

 over the head of the criminal, telling for what 

 offense he was thus made to suffer. We do not 

 know what was written over the thieves; but 

 Pilate insisted on giving the reason for putting 

 Jesus to death. The only reason he could get 

 from the high-priest was that Jesus had called 

 himself a king, and they made pretense he was 

 to be feared as a rival of C:B«ar. John tells us 

 the writing Pilate put on the board was, "Je- 

 sus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews." The 

 high- priest objected to this, and wanted Pilate 

 to put it that Jesus sdid he was king. etc. For 

 once in the world, however, even Pilate was 

 stubborn. He replies, " What I have written I 

 have written," and refuses to correct it. I do 

 not know how many present knew of Jesus' 

 life and lifework. They evidently knew some- 

 thing of it, for we gather this from the remarks 

 they made. And, by the way, it seems to have 

 been a custom that, while the culprit was suf- 

 fering the terrible tortures of the cross, to rail 

 on him, and make him the victim of cruel jokes 

 and taunts. While helpless and suffering they 

 seemed to think it a fit and proper thing to add 

 to his anguish by taunting him with cruel jests 

 and jibes. They brought up what he said 



about building the temple again in three days, 

 and then threw it up to him, helpless as he was 

 — at least, so far as theij could see. They said, 

 "Save thyself, and come down from the cross." 

 And even the chief priests themselves mocking 

 him said, " He saved others, himself he can not 

 save." In their hopeless ignorance and terrible 

 depravity of heart, perhaps they were honest 

 in this. 



And now comes the great lesson that I feel so 

 helpless to teach. The whole wide world, 

 almost, etien no (o. are unwilling to accept the 

 thought that there can be a human being, or 

 any being, if you choose, who has power, and 

 yet will not use it for self or for selfish purposes. 

 Mankind the world over— at least unconverted 

 humanity — seem loth to believe that there is 

 anybody who loves his neighbor to such an ex- 

 tent that he may forget self, and forget to be 

 selfish. They said to the poor dying Savior, 

 " He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if 

 he will have him." They even challenged the 

 great Creator of the universe to change his 

 purpose and plans, that they might believe. 

 We know, however, that it would have made 

 no difference; for when he did come down from 

 the cross they did not believe, but only hated 

 him the more. Let us hold on just a little with 

 this scene before us. 



I have written to you one or more times in 

 regard to the gambling mania — the craze that 

 people have to get money or property without 

 earning it. A great lot of people work equally 

 hard for some prize. One gets all of it — the 

 rest get nothing at all; and the one who has it 

 all is supposed to be the happy one. You may 

 tell me that even Christians do this same thing. 

 In sadness and 'sorrow I have to admit that 

 they do: but it is not because of their Chris- 

 tianity. It is rather because of the feebleness 

 of their faith and the poorness of their under- 

 standing of the Christlike which every Chris- 

 tian ought to have. 



A young man in our employ, I was told, was 

 gambling. He and other boys would get to- 

 gether Saturday night after they had received 

 their pay; and before the party broke up, one 

 of the boys had the entire earnings of the crowd 

 for the week. This young man confessed to me 

 that such was the case. "l said to him, " Why, 

 John, is it possible that you can willingly take 

 the money your comrades have earned, just 

 because the handling of some little pieces of 

 pasteboard makes out that it is vour money 

 instead of theirs? Can you sleep nights with 

 the money that they have earned in your pock- 

 ets'? in fact, is it possible that you can be so 

 unmanly and so selfish as to consent to take 

 and to hcep their honest earnings? " 



thought I could shame him out of it; but I 

 had to give up. He said he did not see things 

 just as I did, and in a kind of sheepish way 

 tried to defend himself. He soon left ray em- 

 ploy, and I do not know where he is now. 



Some time ago I was persuaded to let Huber 

 ride his wheel in a juvenile contest. I stipu- 

 lated, however, that he should receive no prizes 

 for his skill. He thought it was a little hard: 

 but finally, as I explained the matter, he agreed 

 to it. You may think me a queer sort of father 

 when I tell you I felt almost sorry to hear that 

 he had won both prizes— one for the highest 

 speed, and one as the slowest rider. I think he 

 was awarded a suit of clothes; and great was 

 the astonishment when he refused to take 

 them. One of the prizes, however, was only a 

 bag of doughnuts; and by my permission he 

 accepted these; but I stipulated even then that 

 he should not eat them (not because of con- 

 scientious scruples, however, but because I 

 feared they would be indigestible). 



